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LEGIONNAIRE BOWE 

Mr. Bowe's matricule (aluminum wrist-tag) is No. 11,436 — ■ 
Foreign Legion. Crescent and bursting bomb on cap indi- 
cate the Legion's Moroccan Division. Chevron and device 
on left sleeve denote a grenade-thrower of two years' 
trench service — one bar for first year and one for each added 
six months. Note bullet scar on left eyebrow. 



SOLDIERS 
OF THE LEGION 



TRENCH ETCHED 

BY 

LEGIONNAIRE BOWE 

WHO IS 

JOHN BOWE 

of Canby, Minnesota 
AND 

CHARLES L. MACGREOR 

Collaborator 



PRESS OF 

PETERSON LINOTYPING CO. 

CHICAGO, 1918 



CfC 30 1918 



THIS BOOK HAS 

AFTER-THE-WAR 

VALUES OF PERMANENCE 

IT IS 

HISTORICALLY IMPORTANT 
AND UNUSUAL 



First printing, October, 1918 

Copyrighted, 1918, by 

JOHN BOWE 

Second printing, November, 1918 

Copyrighted, 1918, by 

JOHN BOWE 

AND 

CHARLES L. MacGREGOR 

English and International Copyrights applied foi 

To Adjutant Jean Catell of the 
French army, representative of the 
Government of France — to be trans- 
lated and published in French news- 
papers, December, 1918. 

Released to the Artlepican press, on 
request, after Januar-y^31, 1919. To ob- 
tain in galleys, apply to Charles L. 
MacGregor, 1111 Nicollet Avenue, 
Minneapolis, Minnesota. 



Dramatic and Moving-Picture Rights Reserved 



©CLA512115 



THIS AMERICAN CITIZEN'S BOOK IS 

AFFECTIONATELY DEDICATED 

TO HIS COMRADE IN ARMS, 

THE FRENCH POILU 



INTRODUCTORY 

'"Good luck, my soldier ! You Americans are 
an extraordinary people. You are complex. 
We have thought we understood you — but, we 
do not. We never know what you will do 
next.'' 

I asked my French landlady, who thus re- 
sponded to the news that I had joined the For- 
eign Legion, for an explanation. She said: 

''In the early days of the war, when the Ger- 
mans advanced upon Paris at the rate of thirty 
kilometers a day, driving our French people 
before them, pillaging the country, dealing 
death and destruction, when our hearts were 
torn with grief, Americans who were in Paris 
ran about like chickens with their heads cut off. 
They could not get their checks cashed; they 
had lost their trunks ; they thought only of their 
own temporary discomfort, and had no sym- 
pathy for our misfortunes.'' 

"But," she continued, "the same ship that 
took these people away brought us other Amer- 
icans. Strong and vigorous, they did not re- 

7 



8 INTRODUCTORY 

main in Paris. Directly to the training camps 
they went; and, today, they are lying in mud, in 
the trenches with our poilus/' 

"Now, we should like to know, if you please, 
which are the real Americans — those who ran 
away and left us when in trouble, or those who 
came to help us in time of need. Are you goers 
or comers?" 

Self-proclaimed "good Americans," who 
pray that when they die they may go to Paris, 
are no more the real Americans than is their 
cafed, boulevarded, liqueured-up, artificial, gay 
night-life Paris — the only Paris they know 
(specially arranged and operated, by other for- 
eigners, for their particular delectation and 
benefit!) — the real Paris. 

Such Americans, whose self-centered world 
stands still when their checks are but unhon- 
ored scraps of paper, the light of whose eyes 
fades if their personal baggage is gone, with 
just one idea of "service" — that fussy, obse- 
cLuious attendance, which they buy, are they 
whose screaming Eagles spread their powerful 
wings on silver and gold coin only. Their "U. 
S." forms the dollar-sign. They are the globe- 
trotting, superficial, frivolous "goers." 

Boys in brown and blue, girls in merciful an- 



INTRODUCTORY , 9 

gels' white, men and women of scant impedi- 
menta, are the "comers," to whom — and to 
whose distant home-fire tenders — "U. S." 
means neither Cash nor Country alone, but a 
suffering humanity's urgent — US. Bonds of 
liberty mean, to them, LIBERTY BONDS. 
Yes "La Fayette, we are here!" Real Amer- 
icans think, shoot and shout, Pershing for the 
perishing, "the Yanks are coming over till it's 
over, over there!" 




''The Girl I Left 
Behind Me'' 



France gave us, outright, six mil- 
lion dollars — when millions were 
Millions! and she loaned us an equal 
amount at 5 per cent, though the 
money cost her 7. We have not 
yet properly repaid the bringer of 
Liberty's Goddess to brighten our 
shore. 



FOREWORD 

Let the fastidious beware! 

Here is no inviting account of a holiday in 

France. 
The fighting author does not apologize for 

this terrible tale. 
He has written literally, unglossed — no glam- 
our, to 
Help you understand the horrors of War and 

Prussian dreadfulness. 
This gripping catalogue of catastrophe is by 

an American. 
It contains romance, history — but absolutely 

no fiction, 
it is a Love story. "Greater love hath no man 

than this . . . ." 
The National Society of Real Americans, in the 

shadow of 
Independence Hall, Philadelphia, reminds 
Us that we have two Countries — 
United States and France. 
''Jack" Bowe, in this, his second volume on 

War, presents a French viewpoint, rather 

than the British. 



12 FOREWORD 

Cosmopolite, born on the Scotch-English bor- 
der, he 

Knows no boundaries in 

Freedom's cause. 

He has served in five regiments in France. 

Wounded and spent, he has been restored in 
five different hospitals. 

Evacuated from the front, twice, he has recu- 
perated in 

England and returned, on furlough, to America, 

When he received "Certificate of Honor" for 
promoting the sale of Liberty Bonds. 

Thrice decorated for distinguished conduct and 
valor in Europe, 

He wears, also, three medals from service in the 

Spanish-American War and in the 

Philippine Insurrection. 

He has been marched through countless vil- 
lages of France whose 

Names he did not know — nor could he have 
pronounced them! 

Indian file, in black night, he has tramped hun- 
dreds of miles of 

Trenches, which he could not have recognized 
next morning. 

He has endured twenty days and nights of con- 
tinuous cannonade. 



FOREWORD 13 

Experiencing every sort of military warfare 

on land, he has also survived a 
Collision at sea. 
He has been Mayor of his own home town, 

Canby, Minnesota. 
In Minnesota's Thirteenth, he fought for the 

Stars and Stripes, being 
Present at the capture of Manila, P. I., August 

13, 1898. 
Having represented, with honors, earth's two 

greatest 
Republics, he is still enrolled under the 
Tri-color of France, in that wonderful, inter- 
national composite of 
Individual fearlessness, the Foreign Legion, 
"Where the blindest bluffs hold good, dear 

lass, 
And the wildest tales are true." 

CHARLES L. MacGREGOR. 

Minneapolis, November, 1918. 

N. B.: 

Material for this work was "Solid Gold," according to 

An old-timer Bookseller, who regrets it has been 
Printed privately instead of properly Published 

with extensive Advertising. If you like it. Talk it! 
Mr. Bowe's impressionist stuff is so perfectly bully, so 

John Bully! so lovably French — 
Admirably American, withal, I knew it was 

wrong to much "improve" or, try to connect it. 
Therefore, I have alloyed it but little, not 

even always insisting on real sentences. — MacG. 



^^tv Went Pefore 



To those gallant fellows 
who left the peace and 
comfort of happy American 
homes, when their country 
was yet neutral, in order 
to carry out their ideals 
of Right and Justice — this 
book is a reminder that 
they have not suffered in 
vain and are not forgotten. 



CONTENTS 

PAGE 

Dedication 5 

Introductory 7 

Foreword 11 

In Memoriam 14 

•Some Pictures, listed 16 

CHAPTER 

I Joining the Legion 17 

II History of the Legion 26 

III Americans in the Legion 40 

IV First American Flag in France 51 

V Foreigners in the Legion 59 

VI Englishmen and Russians Leave 81 

VII Trenches 89 

VIII July 4th, 1915 100 

IX Outpost Life iii 

X Champagne Attack 131 

XI Life in Death 149 

XII The 170th French Regiment 154 

XIII The 163rd and 92nd Regiments 158 

XIV Hospital Life 162 

XV An Incident 169 

XVI Nature's First Law 180 

XVII The Invaded Country 194 

XVIII Love and War 204 

XIX Democracy 222 

XX Autocracy 230 

XXI Their Crimes 245 

L'Envoi 259 

Indices 271 

BROTHER JOHN'S PROPHECY 275 



SOME PICTURES 

PAGE 

Legionnaire Bowe 2 

"The Girl I Left Behind Me" 10 

Old Time Legionnaires 20 

Fouragere of the Foreign Legion 38 

Edgar Bouligny, Sergeant 39 

Eight Americans 44 

United States Army Service Medals 58 

Jan Der Tex Bondt — Volunteer 71 

Forty-eight Hour Furlough 102 

War Department Certificate 113 

United States Congressional Medal 114 

Serbian Medal Citation 163 

Serbian Medal 164 

Convalescence Certificate , 178 

Croix de Guerre Citation 217 

Croix de Guerre — French War Cross 218 

French Furlough (Front) 246 

French Furlough (Back) 247 

Certificate of Honor 260 



Soldiers of the Legion 

CHAPTER I 

JOINING THE LEGION 

r entered the service of France in the Hotel 
des Invalides, Paris, that historical structure 
upon the banks of the Seine, built by Napoleon 
Bonaparte as a home and refuge for his worn- 
out veterans. The well-known statue of the 
Man of Destiny, with three cornered hat and 
folded arms, broodingly gazed upon us as, with 
St. Gaudens and Tex Bondt, I marched up the 
court yard. 

At depot headquarters, where I gave my 
name and American address, a soldier, writing 
at a desk, spoke up, — "Do you know Winona, 
in Minnesota ?'' ''Yes, of course, it is quite near 
my home." "Do you know this gentleman?" 
He unbuttoned his vest and pulled out the pho- 
tograph of Dr. O. P. Ludwig, formerly of Wi- 
nona, now of Frazee, Minnesota. 

17 



i8 SOLDIERS OF THE LEGION 

That night I was given a blanket and shown 
to a room to sleep. I shall never forget what a 
cosmopolitan crew met my unsophisticated 
eyes next morning. The man next to me, a 
burly Swiss, had feet so swollen he could not 
get his shoes on. Another had no socks. One, 
wounded in the arm, sat up in bed, staring at 
the newcomer. It is a habit old soldiers de- 
velop, a polite way of expressing pity for the 
newly arrived boob. An Alsatian corporal 
pored over an English dictionary, trying to 
learn words so he could go to the English army 
as an interpreter. Suspected of being a spy, he 
had been brought back from the front. These 
men had slept in their clothes. The air was 
foul, stifling. A soldier went about and gave 
each his breakfast — a cup of black coffee. 



I stuck around, wondering if I had lost my 
number. Suddenly a voice, in English, boomed 
out, "Hello, where's that new Englishman?" 
'T am not English, — I am an American.'' Quick 
as a shot came the answer, ''So am I ! I am the 
colonel's orderly sent to take you over to your 
company." In a few minutes, I was giving 
the latest American news to Professor Orlin- 



JOINING THE LEGION 19 

ger, formerly instructor in languages at Colum- 
bia University, New York. 



The training was fierce — almost inhuman. 
Men were needed badly at that time. The 
Germans were advancing, and would not wait, 
so men were sent out to the front as quickly as 
hardened. A number, possibly five per cent, 
broke under the strain. It was a survival of the 
fittest. We stuck it out ; and, after eight weeks, 
went to the front with the Second Regiment of 
the Foreign Legion. 

No other nation in the world has a fighting 
force like the Foreign Legion. Here, in this 
finest unit in France, the real red blood of all 
peoples unites. Men from fifty-three countries, 
every land and clime, all ranks and walks of life, 
colors, ages, professions, of difiierent religious 
and political beliefs, speaking all languages, 
they have come from the four corners of the 
globe and are fused in the crucible of discipline. 
The Legion exacts absolute equality. The mil- 
lionaire with his wealth, or the aristocrat of 
birth and pedigree, has no more privilege than 
the poorest Legionnaire. 





ALEXANDRE FRANCOIS 
Switzerland 



OLD TIME LEGIONNAIRES 

CHAS. BLOMMiE 
Belgium 



Comrades in 27 campaigns. Photograph taken in hospital. One left a leg. the 
other an arm, to fertilize the soil of France. Francois has four decorations, Blomme 
has six. He carries the gold medal presented by Queen Anne of Russia, in his pocket. 
They fought for France and Liberty for one cent per day. 



JOINING THE LEGION 21 

An outstanding type is the volunteer, well 
dressed, athletic, frequently rich, who burns 
with enthusiasm, and brings dash, energy and 
vim, to be conserved, directed into proper chan- 
nels by the tested old timers, who are the real 
nucleus of that dependability for which this 
Regiment is noted. During this war, 46,672 
men had enlisted in the Legion, of which 2,800 
were on the front, autumn of 1917, when I left 
for America. 

The Legion is a shifting panorama, interna- 
tional debating ground, continuous entertain- 
ment, inspiriting school of practical human na- 
ture. The Legionnaire lives in realms of ro- 
mance, experiences, fantastic as are dreams, 
horrible as the nightmare. He comes out, glad 
to have been there, to have lived it all. 

In the village of repose, one will sit in a shel- 
tered corner by a flickering camp fire, in the 
gathering darkness, not hearing the ever pres- 
ent cannon's roar, nor watching the illumina- 
tion of the distant star-shells, while Legion- 
naires and volunteers tell of the Boer, Philip- 
pine, Mexican, Spanish wars, the South Amer- 
ican revolutions, or describe conditions on the 



22 SOLDIERS OF THE LEGION 

Belgian Congo and in Morocco. Comrades in 
the flesh recount deeds with the thrill of rollick- 
ing adventure. The listener gets a grasp on 
himself and learns world problems. He be- 
comes a divided person, living an unnatural 
present, absorbed in the excitements of yes- 
teryear. 

Social life is that of the ancient buccaneer of 
the Spanish Main. Here, one finds a kindred 
spirit who shares his joys and dangers and in- 
herits his wealth (?). Each shields the other 
in the small incidents of life. In larger affairs 
all are secure in the sheltering, comfortable tra- 
ditions of the Legion, which, insisting on strict- 
est obedience, provide, in return, unflinching 
common protection. Never is a comrade de- 
serted, left to the mercies of an enemy. Death, 
— rather than capture ! 

As in the early days of the American West, 
a man does not have to bring recommendation 
from his priest, a bank's letter of credit, or a 
certificate of respectability, to prove him elig- 
ible. He is taken at his face value — "No ques- 
tions asked." He does not impair his citizen- 
ship. He does not swear French allegiance. 



JOINING THE LEGION 23 

He retains his own individuality. No one pries 
into his private affairs. His troubles are his. 
He carries them, also his fame, v^ithout adver- 
tising. If bad, he conceals his vices. If good, 
he bears his virtues in silence. Whatever his 
status in civil life, in the Legion, he is simply 
a Legionnaire. This is not the place for v^eak- 
lings. Invariably they are used up in the train- 
ing. Here are only strong, independent men, 
v^ho do things, who make their mark, who 
scorn the little frivolities of life, who neither 
give nor ask favors. 

There are no roundheads in the Legion. The 
most noticeable thing is squareness — square 
jaws, square shoulders, square dealing of man 
to man. There is a feeling of pride, of emula- 
tion, between officers and men — a mutual re- 
spect, that is hard to define. Officers do not 
spare themselves. They do not spare their men, 
nor do they neglect them. While the men are 
untiring in admiration for their leaders, French 
officers are equally complimentary in their ap- 
preciation, which the following citation from 
General Degoutte, Commander of the Moroc- 
can Division, shows, — ''The folds of your ban- 
ner are not large enough to write your titles of 



24 SOLDIERS OF THE LEGION 

glory, for our foreign volunteers live and die 
in the marvelous. It is to the imperishable 
honor of France to have been the object of such 
worship, of all the countries, and to have 
grouped under her skies all the heroes of the 
world." 

Scores of books, in many languages, have 
been written about this famous corps, some in 
anger, others in sorrow, many blaming — few 
praising, the hardness of the discipline, the 
shortness of the food, the length of the marches, 
or the meager wage of one cent per day. After 
two years the pay was raised to five cents and 
again increased to one franc (20 cents) per day, 
while at the front. 

There are many reasons why men become 
Legionnaires. Some join for glory, others for 
adventure. Some just want to be in the midst 
of things, — they yearn to see the wheels go 
round! Others were brought by curiosity, 
rather than intelligence. Some came because 
they wanted to — others, because they had to. 
Some crave the satisfaction of helping under- 
dogs, who are sweating their brass collars. 
Some fight for hatred of Germany and of the 



JOINING THE LEGION 25 

German character. Others strive for love of 
France and what she stands for. Different 
feelings, mingled with heroic ideals, recruit the 
ranks. 

American members know that the present 
fight of France is ours. She, also, contends for 
democracy. She aided us in our direst need. 
In the darkest hour of the Revolution, it was 
the French fleet that defied the English, landed 
French soldiers to help us, and enabled Wash- 
ington to dispatch 5,000 red-breeched French- 
men, who marched from Newport News to join 
1,500 American infantry under Alexander 
Hamilton. They captured Yorktown and com- 
pelled the surrender of Cornwallis and gained 
the victory that resulted in the independence 
of America. 

So, today, 142 years later, American soldiers 
in khaki cross leagues of ocean, fight, suffer 
and die to save invaded France. 



CHAPTER II 

HISTORY OF THE LEGION 

The Foreign Legion has a notable record 
which extends back to the Crusades. Then, 
French and Anglo-Saxon marched together 
and fought to save the world for Christianity. 
History repeating itself, after centuries, today, 
we see the same forces, side by side, fighting, 
dying, not only for Christianity, but for civili- 
zation. On the result of this clash with the 
barbarous Hun depends the preservation of the 
humane world. 

At Pontevrault, twenty miles from wSaumer, 
in the valley of the Loire, rest the remains of 
Richard Coeur-de-Lion, whose Anglo-Saxon 
heart, worn with hardship and suffering, ceased 
beating under the sunny skies of France, 
pierced by the poisoned arrow of a mysterious 
assassin from the far East. 

Beneath the pavement, in front of the Church 
of the Holy Sepulchre, in Jerusalem, lies the 
dust of Philip D'Aubigne, a French knight, 

26 



HISTORY OF THE LEGION 27 

who fulfilled his vow to lay himself upon the 
threshold of that church which marks the place 
where rests the body of our Lord and Savior, 
Jesus Christ. 

As the Anglo-Saxon perished in France and 
the Frenchman died in Jerusalem, both for the 
cause of Right and Justice, today, millions leave 
native land to meet that organized force which 
seeks to conquer, subdue, and enslave the peo- 
ple of all earth's free countries. 

Among ancient soldiers of the Foreign Le- 
gion were Broglie of Broglie, Rantzan, Lowen- 
dall, the Duke of Berwick, John Hitton, the son 
of an African king, and the Scottish Stuarts, 
with many other knights and men of note. 

For their devotion, especially that of the 
Swiss Guards to the French Kings, the Legion- 
naires were respected, even by their enemies, 
the Revolutionists, who, April 20, 1792, ap- 
pealed to them to "desert the cause of Royal 
oppression, range themselves under the flag of 
France, and consecrate their efforts to the de- 
fense of liberty." They responded, gathered 
under the tri-color, and, in 1795, commanded by 



28 SOLDIERS OF THE LEGION 

Angereau, Marshal of France, one of Napoleon 
Bonaparte's most trusted generals, won such 
renown that companies — frequently whole regi- 
ments of foreigners — flocked to their standard. 
In 1799, there were incorporated a regiment of 
Italians, a regiment of Poles and a regiment 
of Maltese. These made the campaign of Egypt 
with Napoleon. I'n 1809, a Portuguese, a Greek 
and an Irish regiment joined. In 1812, came a 
regiment of Mamelukes, who, January 7, 1814, 
had their name changed to Chasseurs of the 
Orient. 



The Foreign Legion helped save France for 
the people in the Revolution. They shared in 
the glory and pomp of Napoleon's dazzling 
career. They marched and suffered through 
the retreat from Moscow. Napoleon, on his re- 
turn from Elba, created eight Regiments of the 
Foreign Legion, who shared the fate of the 
world's greatest soldier at Waterloo. 



After Napoleon's downfall Louis XVIII cre- 
ated the Royal Foreign Legion which later 
was merged with the 86th Regiment of the 
Line. 



HISTORY OF THE LEGION 29 

May 9, 1831, the French Chamber of Depu- 
ties decreed the Foreign Legion should not be 
employed on the soil of France, so the Regi- 
ment was sent to Africa, with headquarters at 
Sidi-bel-Abbe's, Algeria. 

In 1842 Patrick MacMahon, a descendant of 
Irish Kings, was lieutenant colonel of the For- 
eign Legion. Later, during the Crimean War, 
MacMahon's troops were assigned the task of 
capturing the Malikoif. After hours of hand- 
to-hand, sanguinary fighting, to beat off the 
Russian counter-attacks, the French comman- 
der, Marshal Pellisser, believing- the fortress 
was mined, sent MacMahon orders to retire. 
The old Legionnaire replied, — ''I will hold my 
ground, dead or alive." He held. The evacua- 
tion of Sebastopol followed. In 1859, he de- 
feated the Austrians at Magenta. He was 
given the title of Duke of Magenta, and re- 
warded with the baton of a Marshal of France. 

In 1854, Bazaine, who enlisted as a private 
soldier in the 37th Regiment of the Line, and 
died a Marshal of France, was Colonel of the 
Foreign Legion. He led them to Milianah, 
Kabylia and Morocco. 



30 SOLDIERS OF THE LEGION 

They participated in the Mexican War, in 
1861, and in the Franco-German War of 1870. 
After the fall of Sedan and the capture of Na- 
poleon III, under the Republic, they served 
with General Garibaldi, "The Liberator of 
Italy." Three brigades of the Foreign Legion, 
chiefly Irishmen, Spaniards, Italians and Franc- 
Tireurs, fought a bitter partisan warfare 
against overwhelming odds in eastern France 
and the Vosges, where, rather than surrender 
to the invader, many crossed the frontier into 
Switzerland. 

At Casablanca, Africa, in 1908, a dispute 
about a German, enlisted in the Foreign Legion, 
almost precipitated war between Germany and 
France. The Kaiser rattled the saber, demand- 
iiig an apology from France; but the response 
of M. Clemenceau, who stood firm, was so di- 
rect and spirited that Germany did not then 
insist. ''The day'' had not arrived. In the same 
town, seven years later, January 28, 1915, a 
German spy, Karl Fricke, after failing to pro- 
voke a holy war among the Mohammedans, 
relying on his personal friendship with his mas- 
ter, the Kaiser, laughed when the French com- 
mander told him he would be shot in an hour. 



HISTORY OF THE LEGION 31 

"Der Tag!" 

(Kipling's poem was never more timely than today, when the 
German braggart is seeking to escape the impending disaster.) 

You boasted the day, and you toasted the day, 

And now the day has come. 
Blasphemer, braggart, and coward all. 
Little you reck of the numbing ball, 
The blasting shell, or the white arm's fall. 

As they speed poor humans home. 

You spied for the day, you lied for the day. 

And worked for the day's red spleen. 
Monster, who asked God's aid divine. 
Then strewed His seas with ghastly wine. 
Not all the waters of the Rhine 

Can wash thy foul hands clean. 

You dreamed for the day, you schemed for the day, 

Watch how the day will go. 
Slayer of age, and youth, and prime 
(Defenseless slain for never a crime). 
Thou art steeped in blood as a hog in slime, 

False friend and cowardly foe. 

You have sown for the day, you have grown for the day. 

Yours is the harvest red. 
Can you hear the groans and the awful cries? 
Can you see the heap of slain that lies, 
And sightless, turned to the flame-split skies. 

The glassy eyes of the dead? 

You have wronged for the day, you have longed for the day. 

That lit the awful flame. 
'Tis nothing to you that hill and plain 
Yield sheaves of dead amid the grain ; 
That widows mourn for their loved ones slain, 

And mothers curse thy name. 

But after the day there's a price to pay 

For the sleepers under the sod. 
And He you have mocked for many a day — 
Listen and hear what He has to say : 
"Vengeance is Mine, / will repay." 
What can you say to God? 

— Rudyard Kipling. 



32 SOLDIERS OF THE LEGION 

''You French are good jokers/' he said, and 
asked for breakfast. Half an hour later, when 
told to get ready for execution, he protested, 
''You are carrying the thing too far, you forget 
who I am." The officer responded, — "On the 
contrary, we know who you are; we remember 
quite well — only too well." 

In 1913 Lieut. Von Forstner of the 91st Ger- 
man Regiment used abusive language and in- 
sulted the French flag, while warning the Al- 
satian conscripts against listening to French 
agents, who the Germans claimed were induc- 
ing men to join the Foreign Legion. 

On Nov. 29, 1913, at Severne near the Rhine- 
Marne Canal, the civilians assembled in protest. 
The soldiers charged the crowd, arrested the 
Mayor, two judges, and a dozen other promi- 
nent citizens who in respect for the universal 
demand of the population were later released, — 
while the officers responsible for the outrage 
were court-martialed and acquitted. 

A short time afterward Lieut. Von Forstner 
had a dispute with a lame shoemaker and cut 
him down with his sword. 



HISTORY OF THE LEGION 33 

This brutal act resulted in the officer's being 
again court-martialed for wounding an un- 
armed civilian. Sentenced to a year's impris- 
onment, said sentence was annulled by a higher 
court, who claimed that he acted in "supposed 
self defense." 

The demand for justice caused by the injus- 
tice of the decision was so loud and threatening 
that the Reichstag was compelled to investi- 
gate the matter. For the first time in the Ger- 
man Empire a vote of censure was passed on 
the Government, 293 to 54. 



This vote, which challenged the supremacy 
of the military dynasty, together with the re- 
fusal of the Social Democrats in the Reichstag 
to stand up and cheer the Kaiser, was one of the 
determining factors of the war. 



In the spring of 1915 the Foreign Legion in 
Europe consisted of four regiments. I'n No- 
vember, the small nucleus gathered about the 
1st Regiment was all that remained of those 
splendid men. 



34 SOLDIERS OF THE LEGION 

The 2nd Regiment, after passing the winter 
of 1914-15 at Croanelle in front of Croane, went 
into the Champagne attack, September 25, 
1915, with 3,200. October 28th but 825 survived. 
These were merged with the 1st Regiment. 

The 3rd Regiment, officered by Parisian fire- 
men, had a very brief and sanguinary existence, 
and later were also merged with the 1st Regi- 
ment. 

The 4th Regiment, the Garibaldians, 4,000 
strong, after a famous bayonet attack in Ar- 
gonne, captured three lines of trenches, losing 
half their effectives, including the two Gari- 
baldi brothers, Bruno and Peppino. The sur- 
vivors went to Italy to aid their own country, 
upon her entry into the war. 

Many English, Russians, Italians, Belgians 
went home during that summer. When Le- 
gionnaires marched inside the long range of 
heavy German guns, with attacks and counter- 
attacking machine gun emplacements, with 
wire entanglements in front, which, owing to 
shortage of artillery, could not be blown up or 
destroyed, but must be hand-cut, or crawled 



HISTORY OF THE LEGION 35 

through, is it any wonder they were scattered? 
Killed, missing, the hillsides were dotted with 
their graves; their wounded were in every hos- 
pital. 



During this last generation, the Foreign Le- 
gion made history in the sand-swept plains of 
the Sahara and in the spice-laden Isle of Mad- 
agascar. They marched to Peking during the 
Boxer troubles, fought against the pig-tails in 
Indo-China, and the women warriors of Da- 
homey. They have been in every general at- 
tack of the present great war. 

Advancing steadily, fighting side by side 
with the magnificent French Regiments who 
regard the Legion with respect, almost with 
jealousy, — the Legionnaire feels himself a per- 
sonage. His comrades have suffered and died 
by thousands to gain the position the Regiment 
holds. Each living member must now maintain 
that enviable record. 



July 14, 1917, anniversary of the fall of the 
Bastile, Independence Day of France, the For- 



36 SOLDIERS OF THE LEGION 

eign Legion was decorated with the braided 
cord, the Fouragere, the color of the Medaille 
Militaire, by President Poincare. The only 
other regiment permitted to wear that decora- 
tion is the lS2nd, which has been cited four 
times. The Legion now stands cited five times 
in the orders of the day.* 

The fifth citation of the Foreign Legion 
reads : 

^^General Orders, No. 809. 

"The General commanding the 4th Army 
Corps cites to the order of the Foreign Legion: 
Marvelous Regiment, animated by hate of the 
enemy, and the spirit of greatest sacrifice, who 
on the 17th of April, 1917, under the orders of 
Lieut. Col. Duritz hurled themselves against 
the enemy, strongly organized in their trenches, 
captured their front line trenches against a 
heavy machine gun fire, and, in spite of their 
chiefs being mortally wounded, accomplished 
their advance march by the orders of Col. De- 
ville under a continuous bombardment, night 
and day, fighting, man to man, for five uninter- 
rupted days, and, regardless of heavy losses and 

*July, 1918. The Legion has again been decorated, this 
time with the Legion of Honor. 



HISTORY OF THE LEGION 37 

the difficulty of obtaining ammunition and sup- 
plies, made the Germans retreat a distance of 
two kilometers beyond a village they had 
strongly fortified, and held for two years. 

"THE COMMANDING GENERAL, 

"Authoine." 



During the attack on the Bois Sabot, Sep- 
tember 2'8, 1915, a captured German exclaimed: 
''Ha, ha. La Legion, you are in for it now. The 
Germans knew you were to attack; they swore 
to exterminate you. Look out. Go carefully. 
Believe me, I know. I am an old Legionnaire." 

Previous to this, Germany, incensed by the 
thousands of Alsatians and Lorraines in the Le- 
gion, whom German law practically claims as 
deserters from that country, served notice that 
any captured Legionnaire would be shot. So 
the Legionnaires hang together. They stay by 
one another. They never leave wounded com- 
rades behind. 

The Germans promised no mercy. The Le- 
gion adopted the motto: "Without fear and 
without pity," and on the flag is written. 



38 SOLDIERS OF THE LEGION 

''Valor and Discipline/' The march of the For- 
eign Legion, roughly interpreted, reads : 




FOURAGERE OF THE FOREIGN LEGION 

Here's to our blood-kin, here's to our blood-kin. 
To the Alsatian, the Swiss, the Lorraine.- 
For the Boche, there is none. 

In Artois, after the Legion attacked and cap- 
tured three lines of German trenches, in 1915, 



HISTORY OF THE LEGION 



39 



a captured officer, interviewed by the Colonel 
of the Legion, said: 

"Never have we been attacked with such wild 
ferocity. Who are those white savages you 
turned loose upon us?'' 




EDGAR BOULIGNY, AMERICAN EX-SOLDIER 

Sergeant in the Foreign Legion, Aviator of French Expeditionary Force 
in Serbia and Albania. Three times wounded, decorated for bravery, best 
boxer and runner in his company, hard-boiled, red-blooded American. 



CHAPTER III 

AMERICANS IN THE LEGION 

The world's one organization which, for a 
century, has offered refuge to any man, no mat- 
ter what nor whence, who wished to drop out of 
human sight and ken, does not, for obvious 
reasons, maintain a regular hotel register and 
publish arrivals. 

Records of the Foreign Legion are open to 
no one. This picturesque aggregation of dare- 
devil warriors neither supports nor invites staff 
correspondents. Even the names used by the 
gentlemen present do not, necessarily, have any 
particular significance. 

The American was a new element in this 
polyglot assembly. If there is anything he ex- 
celled in, it was disobedience. Independence 
and servility do not go hand-in-hand. He con- 
sidered himself just as good as anyone placed 
in authority over him. He knew that he must 

40 



AMERICANS IN THE LEGION 41 

obey orders to obtain results, that obedience 
was the essence of good team work; but he 
wanted no more orders than were necessary. 
He was willing they should be neutral, — who 
had not the courage to stand up for their con- 
victions. His conscience had demanded that 
he put himself on the side of Right. Always 
courteous to strangers, Americans would dis- 
pute and wrangle among themselves. They had 
a never-failing appetite, also a peculiar habit of 
cooking chocolate in odd corners, — contrary to 
orders. They never would patch their clothes. 
They did no fatigue duty they could dodge. 
They carried grenades in one pocket and books 
in another, and only saluted officers when the 
sweet notion moved them. 



Dennis Dowd, of New York City, and Long Island, a 
graduate of Columbia University and of Georgetown, District 
of Columbia, a lawyer by profession, of Irish descent, a fine 
soldier, passed the first year in the trenches and was wounded 
October 19, 1915. We were in the same squad — were wounded 
different days — again met in same hospital. While in hos- 
pital, he received a package from the ladies of the 
American Church of the Rue de Berri, Paris, in which 
was a letter. This was followed by correspondence, later 
a daily correspondence. Then came an invitation to pass 
his furlough with new found friends. Inside of twenty-four 
hours after meeting, this hard-headed lawyer was affianced 
to the lady, daughter of a professor at the Sorbonne. He 
entered, for the study of aviation, the Buc Aviation School, 
and stood at the head of a class of fifteen aspirants. While 
making a preliminary flight, previous to obtaining his brevet, 
he was killed, August 11, 1916. In life he showed a contempt 



42 SOLDIERS OF THE LEGION 

A corporal who, for safety first, changed 
from Battalion C to Battalion G, speaking 
of early days said: "The Americans were 
the dirtiest, lousiest, meanest soldiers we 
had. They would crawl into their dugout, roll 
into their blanket; and, when I went to call 
them for duty, the language they used would 
burn a man up, if it came true. Yes," he con- 
tinued, "one night I heard an awful noise down 
the trench; — it was bitter cold and sound trav- 
eled far, so I hurried on to see what was wrong. 
A little snot from New York was making all 
the racket. He jumped up and down, trying 
to keep warm, his feet keeping time to his chat- 
tering teeth, till he wore a hole through the 
snow to solid footing. Every time he jumped 
his loaded rifle hit the ground.'' 

of danger. He passed away with a smile on his lips. His 
body was buried at Asnieres, near St. Germain. 

D. W. King, Providence, R. I., member of a family con- 
nected with cement products interests in England and Amer- 
ica, a Harvard graduate — of uncomplaining and unflinching 
disposition, though small in stature, he was great in courage. 
I have seen him marching without a whimper when his feet 
were so sore that only the toes of one foot could touch the 
ground. He always had an extra cake or two of chocolate, 
and was willing to divide with the individual who could 
furnish fire or water. He changed from the Foreign Legion 
to the 170th in 1915, and was seriously wounded in 1916. On 
recovery he went into the Aviation, 

Edgar Bouligny, a real American from New Orleans, 
Louisiana, had served two enlistments in the U. S. Army. His 
father was minister to Mexico, and during the civil war threw 



AMERICANS IN THE LEGION 43 

"You fool, don't you know that thing will go 
off?" 

"Don't I know. Of course I know. What 
do I care? Do you know what happened in 
Section 2 last week, when a gun went off?" 

"No." 

"It accidentally killed a corporal!" 

The officers, however, noticed, after the first 
shock of misery and suffering, that they pulled 
themselves together, tightened their belts and 
made no complaint. On the rifle range, they 
held the record. On route march, they were 
never known to fall out. In patrol work, be- 
tween the lines, others would get all shot up 
and never come back. The Americans always 
got there; always returned; if shot up, they 

himself on the side of Human Liberty, as the son, later, put in 
his fortune and health for International freedom. He went 
from Alaska to France. He rose to be sergeant in the For- 
eign Legion. He was three times wounded, then transferred 
to the Aviation. Obtaining his brevet in three months, he 
went to Salonica, Albania, Greece and the Balkans. He was 
decorated with the Croix de Guerre, with silver star, in 
January, 1917. 

J. J. Casey, a cartoonist from San Francisco, California, 
went into the Foreign Legion in the early days and is still 
going strong. Naturally of a quiet disposition, he will fight 
at the drop of the hat, on provocation. He was shot in the 
foot September 25, 1915, was in the' hospital of the Union 
de Femmes of France at Nice and went back to the front, 
where he still remains. 

Arthur Barry, Boston, Massachusetts, formerly a gunner 



44 



SOLDIERS OF THE LEGION 




^ 5 



O be 

o< 

w ^ 

o| 

<^ 
U o 

I— I 

'— ' 5 
c 



AMERICANS IN THE LEGION 45 

brought back their comrades. They were soon 
looked upon with respect and pride. They 
learned faith in their officers. The officers, in 
turn, found them dependable. 

It was customary for visiting officers to ask 
to see the Americans. When so ordered, this 
aggregation of automobile racers, elephant 
hunters, college students, gentlemen of leisure, 
professional boxers, baseball players, lawyers, 
authors, artists, poets and philosophers, were 
trotted out, and stood silently in line, while 
Sergeant Morlae, his head on one side, extend- 
ing his finger with the diamond on would say, — 

''These are the Americans, mon General." 



on U. S. battleship Dakota, now acts as an Irish battleship 
ashore and throws grenades on the dry land Boche, when- 
ever an opportunity occurs, — of a happy, devil-may-care dis- 
position, all work is a lark to him, while growling and his 
temperament are total strangers. Twice wounded, the last 
time I saw him was in hospital at Lyons, where he was wait- 
ing till a shell splinter could be extracted. He had already 
decided that he would go direct to the front instead of the 
regimental depot on recovery. He was decorated for bravery 
at Chalons, July 14, 1917. Was later transferred to the Amer- 
ican Engineers, wearing the red fouragere of the Legion 
of Honor. 

James J. Back, an engineer by profession, who spoke 
French fluently, went from the Foreign Legion to the Avia- 
tion in the early part of 1915. It was announced in "La 
France," Bordeaux, September 2, 1917, that he was taken 



46 SOLDIERS OF THE LEGION 

Did they like it? They did not. They were 
unable to vent their rage on the general; but 
they did on Morlae. True, he had made sol- 
diers of them, in spite of themselves. He had 
shamed, bluffed, bullied, scolded them into 
being soldiers. They did not mind that. They 
knew it had to be. But, being placed on exhibi- 
tion got their goat. 

However, each man carved out his own par- 
ticular block and put his mark thereon. Strong 
characters, they cannot be passed over living, 
or forgotten dead. M. Viviani said, at Wash- 
ington: — "Not only has America poured out 
her gold, but her children have shed their blood 
for France. The sacred names of America's 
dead remain engraved in our hearts.'' 

prisoner by the Boche. When his machine broke, he fell 
inside the German lines. He was taken before a court mar- 
tial, charged twice with being a Franc-tireur American, which 
called for the death penalty; but was twice acquitted. He 
still languishes in prison. The published account is true; 
but it did not mention that the news was over two years old. 
Bob Scanlon, professional boxer, soldier of the Legion, 
kept having narrow escapes from death so often that he 
became a mascot of good luck. In civilian life he had whipped 
Mar-Robert, Marthenon, and Joe Choynski — even the Boche 
shells respected him! He changed from the Foreign Legion 
into the 170th, then went into the machine gun company. 
He lost his good luck. He found a piece of shell which ripped 
him up badly. Two years later, September, 1917, in Bordeaux, 
coming back to his old gait, he gave a boxing exhibition with 
Lurline, the French Champion. 



AMERICANS IN THE LEGION 47 

About the time the United States entered the 
war, the Americans of the Legion offered their 
services to the American Government at home 
and w^ere not then accepted and the following 
letter, among others, was sent to the New York 
Herald by a French lady : — 

"American Veterans in France. 

"April 28, 1917. 

"Sir: — May I ask through your columns why 
it is that those few Americans, brave enough 
to seek voluntarily, while their country was 
still neutral, the ranks, of our army, have not 
yet been claimed by their own Government, 
whose citizens they remain, while all at home 
are apparently receiving commissions and 

Laurence Scanlon, wounded in the Foreign Legion, went 
into Aviation, dropped his aeroplane through, and into, a 
cook-house. His captain running, expecting to find a corpse, 
met Scanlon coming out the door, who saluted and reported 
himself present, — "It is I, mon capitaine, just arrived." 

John Brown, American citizen, got mixed up with a shell 
explosion in the September, 1915, attack in Champagne. All 
his comrades were killed; but this tough nut has just been 
blown about till he is bent double and one eye is almost gone. 
He has been in eleven hospitals during twenty-three months. 
In August, 1917, he was ordered to go to regimental depot 
for two months "Inapt." The regimental doctors gave him 
an examination, then sent him back to hospital. 

F. Capdevielle, New Yorker, splendid fellow, after a year 
in the Foreign Legion changed to the 170th, where he rose to 
be sergeant. But a young man, he has a great record for 



48 SOLDIERS OF THE LEGION 

honor, are these men to remain sergeants and 
soldiers in the French Army, unrecognized and 
unhonored by their mother country? 

"To me, their part was such a beautiful one, 
to leave home and luxury and peace for this 
carnage to follow their ideals, to risk death vol- 
untarily, if it aid their friends. 

"Surely, your people cannot understand how 
deeply the spirit of those boys has touched the 
hearts of French women in these trying times. 
And, now that the spirit of your people has 
risen to their side, are these leaders to be for- 
gotten? 

"The two aviators. Genet and Hoskier, who 
have died since April 3, were in French uni- 
form. Frenchmen respect them; do not Amer- 
icans? A French Mother." 



longevity, having been through the successive attacks of the 
two regiments volante, without receiving a scratch, though 
he was used up physically in the spring of 1917, and put in a 
couple of months recuperating in Paris. He was decorated 
for gallantry, at Verdun, in the spring of 1916. Killed, Oct. 3, 
1918, by a bullet through the forehead as he led his men in 
attack at Arpeuil. 

Tony Pellet, champion boxer, from Corona, New York, 
came to America with his parents, had his first papers — was 
the tallest, best-built man in his company — a terror on wrong 
doers — in social life as gentle as a woman. The boxing match 
between him and Bob Scanlon at Auxelle Bas, Alsace, will 
pass down in the traditions of the Legion for all time. Later 
Tony whipped the three cooks. He was put in charge of the 
kitchen for punishment; but he got into disgrace again be- 
cause the Legionnaires caught a pet cat, skinned it and 



AMERICANS IN THE LEGION 49 

The Continental edition of the New York 
Herald is not a mail order catalogue, or a polit- 
ical organ, it is a real newspaper, and the 
only American journal published in France. 
It is well printed on good paper. It records the 
doings of society. Its columns are open to the 
opinions of others. It publishes the most cut- 
ting criticism of its own policy with the great- 
est of pleasure. It prints every appeal for char- 
ity — from humans to cats. 

It fought for International Honesty, when 
leaders and trimmers were silent. When the 
leaders woke up, it pushed. Its accurate infor- 
mation, often suppressed by the censor, makes 
every blank space an honor mark. While the 
editor, like the petite Parisienne, whose demure 



threw it into the soup. Living on his income of one cent a 
day, as he had no money, too proud to expose his financial 
condition, he did not go to Paris, July 4, 1915, but suffered 
his martyrdom in silence. Wounded in Champagne in 1915, 
also on the Somme in 1916, when permission came for a fur- 
lough in America, he had forty-two cents. He stowed away 
on a Trans-Atlantic steamer to New York, where the authori- 
ties claimed he was not an American. If he had declared 
his intention to be an American, he had lost the evidence. So 
they locked him up two days at Ellis Island. When in hospi- 
tal one night, he stole out to see his girl, caught, and stand- 
ing before the medical board, who threatened to revoke his 
convalescence, he replied hotly — "You do that, and I will 
make you more trouble than you can shake off the rest of 
your life. ^ You must not think you are handling a Legionnaire 
from Africa now. I will show you what a real American 



50 SOLDIERS OF THE LEGION 

eyes cannot conceal the lurking mischief within, 
just writes enough editorially to make the 
reader wish for more. 

Its vigorous American attitude in 1915 and 
1916 gave the French people hope. It gave the 
repatriated American comfort, for it strength- 
ened his convictions. He felt better for know- 
ing that some, at least, of his countrymen had 
the courage to stand up for the cause he was 
willing to die for. So, he went forward cheer- 
fully. He knew he was following the right path 
and that he was not alone. The Herald gave 
him comfort. It sustained him in adversity. 



Legionnaire can do!" The old Colonel, a judge of men, spoke 
up; — "Silence yourself. Attention, eyes front, about face, 
forward march." Tony walked away; but he got his furlough. 

George Peixotto, painter by profession, brother of the 
President of the American Chamber of Commerce in Paris, 
joined the Foreign Legion and was detailed to the 22nd artil- 
lery. Now, instead of making life-like figures, he makes 
figures lifeless! 

Bullard. After the Champagne attack, in 1915, was changed 
from the Legion to the 170th, then again into the Aviation. 
A busy man, he managed to dodge the Boche bouquets, and, 
so far, he has kept right side up with care. Always likes to 
have Old Glory in sight. 

Bob Soubiron, in civil life a racing automobilist, former 
racing partner of Ralph de Palma. After a year of active 
service with the Legion, he was wounded in the knee and 
evacuated. He concluded that was too slow. So, in order to 
get a touch of high life, he went into the Aviation. He was 
decorated for bravery with the following citation: — "Soubiron, 
an American, engaged in the French service since the begin- 
ning of the war, — member of the Foreign Legion, took part 



CHAPTER IV 

FIRST AMERICAN FLAG IN FRANCE 

Americans in the Legion came and went. 
Singly or in groups they went, wounded into 
hospitals, prisoners into Germany. Dead, they 
took the western trail. Missing, they disap- 
peared into oblivion. A few were permitted 
to exchange into French Regiments, where, 
mothered by France, they were welcomed as 
her own. 

August 21, 1914, in the court yard of the 
Hotel des Invalides, occurred that grand 

in battle of the Aisne, 1914, and the attack in Champagne, 
1915; — wounded October 19, 1915, entered Aviation and proved 
a remarkable pilot — forced an enemy to fall in October 
when protecting aviators who were attacking an enemy's 
observation balloon." 

Lincoln ChatcofT, Brooklyn, New York, one of the old 
originals, went from the Legion into Aviation and was 
decorated with the Croix de Guerre. Unable to get per- 
mission to go to England, he demanded a pass to Paris. He 
went to the Minister of War's office, explained his case, and 
said, — 

"Now, I want to know the truth." 

"About what?" 

"Whether I am a Legionnaire or an Aviator?" 

"You look like an Aviator." 

"Well, am I one or not?" 

51 



52 SOLDIERS OF THE LEGION 

mobilization of foreigners, who, in admira- 
tion for France, placed their lives at her 
disposal. Grouped together, each under a sep- 
arate standard, these cast the vote of inspir- 
ing constituents, lovers of freedom, back 
home. 

Next day, the American volunteers assem- 
bled at No. 11 Rue de Valois, and had break- 
fast through the courtesy of M. Georges Cas- 
meze at the Cafe de la Regence. Starting out 
from the Palace Royale in the Latin Quarter, 
that corner of old Paris where, in by-gone days, 
Camille Desmoulins jumped on a chair and 
made the speech that started the French Rev- 
olution, these latter day revolters against the 
"Divine Right of Kings" and absolute monarch- 

"You must be one." 

"Am I one or not?" 

"Yes." 

"Then I demand to be treated as one." 

"V^hat do you want now?" 

"Permission to go to England." 

He got it. 

He became an expert in his line. He used to take his old 
friends up in the air, ask them if they had been to confes- 
sion, or had said their prayers, then turn a double somer- 
sault, finish with an Egyptian side wiggle and land his vic- 
tims, gasping for breath. On June 15, 1917, he had aloft 
an American ambulance man, who was killed by the process. 
Chatcoff, himself, was sent to the hospital for repairs. 

Kroegh was in the Legion the first year. He went down 
with the boys to the Fourth of July wake in Paris. Then 



AMERICAN FLAG IN FRANCE 53 

ism began the greatest adventure the world has 
ever known. 

The volunteers marched through the Place 
de r Opera, Phelizot carrying high and proudly 
the Stars and Stripes, which received a great 
ovation en route. Thence to the Gare St. La- 
zare, to Rouen, where they met retreating Eng- 
lish soldiers, many wounded and utterly ex- 
hausted. Thence to Toulouse, whence, after a 
very brief training, they were sent to the front. 

February, 1915, in the village of repose there 
occurred one of those lamentable misunder- 
standings, which, in spite of official far-sight- 
edness, occasionally happen in the best regu- 
lated organizations. Begun in fun, it ended in 

he went to Norway, where he organized and brought back 
a detachment of Norwegian Ski-runners, who hauled provi- 
sions and wounded men over the snow-clad hills of the 
Vosges in the winter of 1915-1916. 

Eugene Jacobs, from Pawtucket, Rhode Island, went from 
the Legion to the 170th, where he became one of the best 
liked sergeants. He was decorated with the Croix de Guerre 
for bravery. A butcher by trade, he now carries a carving 
knife on the end of his rifle. 

Barriere was killed at la Cote. His little brother, Pierre, 
15 years old, who had come from America to be as near him 
as possible, was working at the American Express Company's 
office at the Rue d'Opera, Paris, when the bad news came. 
He quit his good situation, stopped correspondence with all 
friends, and lived through his grief silently and alone, like the 
little man he is. 



54 SOLDIERS OF THE LEGION 

death, and almost started a civil war between 
volunteers and Legionnaires. 

A little New Yorker commenced to chaff and 
jolly a big, burly Arab, who, not understanding 
American methods of joshing, thought the lit- 
tle fellow was desperately in earnest; and, of 
course, he got angry, as he was expected to. 
What the Arab intended to reply was that he 
could whip two men like his tormenter. He 
did say he could whip two Americans. Phe- 
lizot, coming on the scene just then, overhear- 
ing the remark, yelled, — "You can't whip one,'' 
and waded in to educate the Arab. 

In about two minutes, the Arab had enough, 
and ran among a crowd of Legionnaires for 

John Laurent, a quiet, gentlemanly man, was in the. Legion 
till October 12, 1915, when he changed into the 170th. An 
actor in civil life, he became a real, living actor in the most 
stupendous tragedy ever staged. He plays his part to 
perfection. 

Collins, writer and journalist, passed the first year of the 
war in the trenches of France. Evacuated for inspection, the 
next we heard of him was from the Balkans. Wounded, he 
turned up in Paris for convalescence. Then, back to the 
French front. He became such a truthful and realistic writer, 
through actual experience, that the censor cut out the half of 
the last article he wrote to the New York Herald; and the 
public hears from him no more. 

Charles Trinkard, Brooklyn, went through the Croanelle 
and Champagne affairs with the Foreign Legion. He was 
wounded in Champagne September 25, 1915. Afterwards he 



AMERICAN FLAG IN FRANCE 55 

protection. One of the Legionnaires swung a 
canteen and hit Phelizot on the head, who did 
not stop till he beat the Arab to the ground. 
Morlae, Capdevielle and other volunteers ran to 
Phelizot's aid. Legionnaires flocked from all 
corners. A pitched battle seemed imminent. 
An officer heard the tumult, happening along, 
and separated them. The Arabs were trans- 
ferred to another battalion. The Americans 
were herded into a loft and placed under ar- 
rest; while sentinels walked underneath, with 
fixed bayonets, till the Arabs had been moved, 
bag and baggage. 

The doctor who dressed Phelizot's wound 
probably did not know the canteen was rusty. 
Possibly he did not know he was hit by a can- 
joined the Aviation, and was killed in combat, November 29, 
1917. His machine fell into a village occupied by the Legion. 
A few minutes after his death permission arrived allowing 
him, after three years' service, to visit his American home. 

Charles S. Sweeney, a West Pointer, rose in the Legion 
successively to corporal, sergeant, lieutenant and captain. He 
was wounded in the head in 1915. Decorated with the Legion 
of Honor and Croix de Guerre, he returned to America. On 
the declaration of war, he became a major in the American 
Army and drilled rookies at Ft. Meyer, Va. He carried the 
colors that enwrapped O'Connel's coffin — the Stars and 
Stripes and the Tri-color, to O'Connel's home at Carthage, 
Mo. 

Oscar Mouvet, San Francisco, brother of M. Maurice and 
Florence Walton, the dancers, joined the Legion, August, 1915. 
He was wounded, also decorated with the Croix de Guerre, 



56 SOLDIERS OF THE LEGION 

teen. At any rate, he did not give an anti-te- 
tanic injection. The injured man steadily grew 
worse. He was not a squealer, and insisted on 
marching in line till the pain became unbear- 
able. When too late, his condition was discov- 
ered. He had contracted blood poison which 
resulted in his death. 

He was a splendid specimen of manhood, an 
American first, last, all the time. A dead shot, 
he was hunting elephants in Africa when the 
war broke out. In spite of having a large con- 
signment of ivory confiscated by the Germans 
in Antwerp, he donated several thousand francs 
to the Belgian Relief Fund. 

By his untimely death, the Legion lost one 
of its strongest characters, France a fine soldier 

July 4, 1916. He served five months in the Aviation, then 
returned to the Legion; and in December, 1917, was again 
seriously wounded. 

Professor Orlinger, Columbia University, New York City, 
put in the first winter in Croanelle, changed to the 167th, 
wounded and invalided home. Short of stature, the long 
strides he made on march, to keep step, were an additional 
attraction in the ever-interesting adventure. 

Algernon Sartoris, son of Nellie Grant, daughter of Gen- 
eral U. S. Grant, former President of the United States, serves 
at present in the Foreign Legion, 

Paul Pavelka, Madison, Conn., an old timer, bound up 
Kiffin Rockwell's bayonet wound at Arras, May 9, 1915. It 
was his section that started the attack on the Bois de Sabot 
in Champagne in 1915. Orders came to reconnoitre the Boche 
position. Everybody knew that these trenches were German. 



AMERICAN FLAG IN FRANCE 57 

and America a good citizen. He was buried at 
Ferme d' Alger. His last words, were, — "I am 
an American." 



The flag was carried by Phelizot until his 
death. Then, Bob Soubiron wrapped it about 
his own body and so kept it until he was 
wounded in October, 1915. On his recovery, 
February, 1916, it was taken to the Aviation, 
and, July 14, 1917, presented, by Dr. Watson, 
to the French Government. It was deposited 
in the Hotel des Invalides along with the other 
historic battle flags of France. The Minister 
of War acknowledged its receipt, — "I accept 
with pleasure, in the name of the French army, 
this glorious emblem, for which General Noix, 
Governor of the Invalides, has reserved a beau- 



They could see the rifles of the soldiers over the trench tops. 
Musgrave said, "Let's go see what in hell sort of a show they 
have over there." The section, about forty men, went and 
just two, Pavelka and Musgrave, both Americans, came back. 
After fourteen months in the trenches, he changed to the 
Aviation. He, a splendid marksman, put twelve bullets out 
of twelve shots, into a moving target at one hundred yards. 
Killed near Monastir, November 1, 1917, buried at Salonica. 

Frank Musgrave, San Antonio lawyer, a long-limbed raw- 
boned Texan, not only looks but acts the part. Original as 
they make them, even in original states. It was a joy to meet 
such a character. After dodging death in Champagne, he 
changed into the 170th and at Verdun was captured during 
an attach, in the spring of 1916, by the Boche. He is now a 
prisoner in Germany. 

Frank J. Baylies, New Bedford, Mass., drove ambulance 



58 



SOLDIERS OF THE LEGION 



tiful place in the Hall of Honor in the Museum 
of the Army." 





United States Army 

INDIVIDUAL SERVICE 
MEDAL 

Spanish-American War 
1898 



United States Army 

INDIVIDUAL SERVICE 
MEDAL 

Philippine Insurrection 
1899 



in Serbia in 1916. Went into the French Aviation. At Luf- 
berry's death, he became the leading American Ace and was 
himself killed June 17, 1918. The news of how he was shot 
down in combat with German aviators, and went to his death 
among the flames of his machine on German soil, was brought 
in a letter dropped by an enemy pilot. He brought down 11 



CHAPTER V 

FOREIGNERS IN THE LEGION 

Within this present generation, men like 
Lord Kitchener, King Peter of Serbia, Vernof, 
a Russian prince, and Albert F. Nordmann, 
who died in Algeria and was reported a relative 
of Kaiser Wilhelm II, belonged to this famous 
corps. This chapter presents some illustrious 
foreigners who have served during this war. 

Nagar Aza, son of the Persian minister to 
France, decorated for bravery and three times 
cited in Army Orders, again cited and deco- 

Boche machines, was promoted to lieutenant, and decorated 
with the Legion of Honor. 

David E. Putnam, Brookline, Mass., descendant of General 
Israel Putnam, succeeded Baylies as chief American Ace with 
12 Boche machines to his credit. In the month of June, 
1918, he brought down seven machines. Killed in combat 
September 18, 1918. 

Paul Ingmer, New York City, American of Danish extrac- 
tion, joined the Legion in 1916, went up on the Somme for a 
preliminary, though bottled up in the Legion, like Johnny 
Walker's whisky, is still going strong, and getting better 
with age. 

Nicholas Karayinis, New York. One of the Americans 
who lived to tell about it. Changed from Legion to American 
Army. 

Cyrus F. Chamberlain, Minneapolis, Minn. Killed in com- 

59 



6o SOLDIERS OF THE LEGION 

rated for brilliant conduct at Auberive, April 
17, 1917. 

Edwin Bucher, a Swiss sculptor, pupil of Ro- 
den and Bourdelle, has marked the resting 
places of the Foreign Legion by carving exqui- 
site figures on the solid walls of everlasting 
rock. 

Marquis de Montesquion, compelled to leave 
the French Army because his Catholic soul 
would not permit him to dismantle churches, 
joined the Foreign Legion. On Sept. 28, 1915, 
when acting as Lieutenant in Battalion G, 2nd 
Legion, he saw a German white flag projecting 
from^the enemy's position. He went over with 
eight men to take possession and all were shot 
down by the treacherous enemy and killed. 

bat while he and a Frenchman were fighting twelve German 
aviators. Odds 6 to 1. Chamberlain's number, "Spad 98," in- 
dicated that he flew a Spad machine. He was the last Ameri- 
can in the Lafayette Escadrille, which he refused to leave, 
fearing that elsewhere he'd miss the fighting. Though he lost 
his life, he gained the admiration of a brave people, and 
freely gave his blood to cement the tie that binds the two 
Republics. Decorated with the Croix de Guerre. Buried at 
Coulommiers. 

Harold E. Wright. Along with others, had much trouble 
getting discharged from the French army. June 6, 1918, was 
ordered to Paris to be transferred to American Army. No 
papers. Waited around for weeks. Went to French Minister 
of Aeronautics for information. Was told to report to the 
Commander of the Fourth Army at the Front, where he was 
arrested as a deserter, and ordered to be shot at sunrise. 



FOREIGNERS IN THE LEGION 6i 

M. Lobedef, a Russian, promoted to lieuten- 
ant in 1915. He later returned to Russia and 
became Minister of Marine. 

Abel Djebelis, a Maltese, winner of the Mar- 
athon race between Windsor and London, Eng- 
land, June, 1914. He was wounded at Cham- 
pagne in 1915 and on the Somme in 1916, by 
two bullets each time. While waiting to be 
mustered out at Lyons, July, 1917, he entered 
a race under the name of Marius, and won from 
twenty competitors. Discharged for disability. 

M. Valsamakis, a Greek, rose to a lieutenancy 
in the Legion and was decorated with the Le- 
gion of Honor. He returned home and was ar- 
rested in Athens for participating in the street 
riots of December, 1916. 



Friends interceded, and he was ordered to report at the Bu- 
reau of Recruitment, Paris, where he received his discharge 
from the French Army, dated January 21, several days before 
he was sentenced to be shot. Again arrested on orders of the 
Prefect of Police, an examination of his papers resulted in 
his being catalogued with the U. S. Army. Provost Marshal 
receipted for him as for a bale of merchandise. 

Manual Moyet, Alabama. American Legionnaire, wounded 
near Soissons, May, 1918. Three times cited for bravery. 
Last citation: "Legionnaire Manual Moyet, during the Vi- 
lers-Bretioneaus combat, withstood effectively with his auto- 
matic rifle, the enemy machine guns, deciding the progress of 
his section. Afterwards he broke up several counter attacks 
along the front." He wrote from a hospital bed to a friend, 
"Believe me, I am sure that after the war it is going to be 
the greatest honor to have served in the Foreign Legion. I 



62 SOLDIERS OF THE LEGION 

Piechkoff Gorky, Russian, son of Maxim 
Gorky, the novelist, had an arm blown away by 
a shell. He received the Legion of Honor for 
bravery and is now attached to the Russian 
Mission in France. 

Bruno and Peppino Garibaldi, Italians, sons 
of an illustrious father, killed in bayonet attack 
in Artois, spring of 1915. French admirers 
have had their profiles, in a medal, fitted into 
the statue of Garibaldi in the Square Lowendal, 
Paris. The square is named for one Legion- 
naire, the statue is built for another. 

Eilyaken, an Egyptian, was attending the 
Conservatory of Music at Brussels when the 
war broke out. A natural born actor, he bur- 



am getting better and hope to be ready for duty in a month. 
As I grow older I understand things better and better; we 
are not fighting for fun, but for liberty. After you have 
killed two or three Boches you do not mind dying. The spirit 
of the Legion is wonderful, although many of the most 
famous of the Legionnaires are dead. Should I live to be a 
hundred years, I shall never forget a man from my section 
who, mortally wounded, lay between the lines shouting, 'Vive 
la France, Vive la Legion. I die, but I am satisfied to die for 
Liberty!'" 

Elof Nelson, a real, quiet, pleasant man, changed from the 
Legion to the 170th. The only Swede in the Legion at that 
time, he adopted the Americans. He was killed on the 
Somme in 1916. 

George Marquet, New York, three times wounded — the 
last time on July 1, 1916, at Hill 304, near Verdun. His com- 



FOREIGNERS IN THE LEGION 63 

lesqued the military system of the Legion so 
accurately that the sous-officers managed to 
keep him in prison in order to silence his cut- 
ting sarcasm. He was shot, square through 
both cheek bones, in the Champagne attack, in 
1915, and carried to shelter on the back of an 
officer. Mustered out in 1916. 

An East Indian, name unknown, blew in, 
with a blaze of glory, between two French mili- 
tary policemen. He was dressed in English 
khaki — leggings, spy-glass, map-book, canteen, 
haversack, spurs, a brand new English rifle, 
with a pocket full of 100 franc notes. 

"What is that, an English soldier?" 

"No, a civilian.'' 

Such he proved to be, a practicing physician 

pany, the 8th of the 6th Regiment of the Line, after defend- 
ing the hill against continued Boche attacks, out of 200 men, 
had only one sergeant and twenty-four men at the close of 
that memorable day. 

Jack Noe, Glendale, L. I., Foreign Legion, was wounded 
in thie attack near Rheims in the spring of 1917, and captured 
in the general mix-up. He escaped and made his way back to 
the French lines. 

R. Hard, Rosebank, Staten Island, New York, having only 
one eye, went into the gas manufacturing works, and com- 
menced to fill gas shells with a bicycle pump. Gradually, the 
business developed till ten men could turn out 1,875 shells 
every ten hours. A thin, wiry man, the gas fumes affected his 
heart. Stout men get the poison in the lungs. 

Henry La Grange went to France at the outbreak of war 
and was ordered to the Foreign Legion: "No," he said, "I 



64 SOLDIERS OF THE LEGION 

in London, who had equipped himself, and ar- 
rived at the little village where the Legion was 
in repose. A stout man, the officer in command, 
addressed the East Indian, — 

"Why don't you report yourself at headquar-^ 
ters?" 

''How can I report myself, till I can find the 
place to report?'' 

"Why don't you report to your superior of- 
ficer?" 

"I can't report to him till I can find him, can 
I?" 

"Don't you know I am your superior officer; 
— why don't you salute?" 

"If you are, consider yourself saluted." 

The Major roared, in disgust — "Here, ser- 
geant, take this fool to prison." 

want to go to my grandfather's regiment, the 8th. If I can't 
join that I will not go at all." His great-grandfather had 
fought in Egypt. The grandson, following the old man's 
footsteps, rose to the rank of sergeant. He was decorated 
with the Croix de Guerre and, later, detailed to America to 
instruct the growing army in artillery observation. 

Mjojlo Milkovich, of San Francisco, a professional boxer, 
left the Golden West with $6,000 in his pocket and an elab- 
orate wardrobe. He was torpedoed in the "Brindisti" and, 
after five hours in the water, reached shore, naked as the 
day he was born. At Corfu, Greece, he joined the French 
Army, was wounded on the Bulgarian front and tended in the 
Scottish Woman's Hospital at Salonica. After his recovery 
he went direct to the front, and, again severely wounded, was 
sent to France. At quarters one day he accosted me: 

"What, you understand English?" 



FOREIGNERS IN THE LEGION 65 

De Chamer, Swiss, a major in the Swiss Na- 
tional Army, fought his way up in the Legion 
from a private to a captaincy. The Swiss resi- 
dents of Paris showed appreciation of their 
countrymen in the service of France by inviting 
them to a banquet held in the Palais d'Orsay, 
on Independence Day, Aug. 1, 1917. 

Emery, Swiss, a student of Oxford Univer- 
sity, England, outspoken, independent and in- 
telligent — a good comrade, was killed on the 
Somme, July, 1916. 

Ben Azef, an Arab, an Oriental priest, always 
wanted water, when there was none. He would 
flop onto his knees, face toward the East, and 
bow his forehead to the ground. Then get up 

"Yes." 

"Are you an American?" 

"Yes." 

"So am I, — can't speak a word of French." 

The three main cords of his leg were severed by shell 
splinters. He chafed at the slow hospital life, and, every sec- 
ond day, he pounded the doctors on the back. "Why don't 
you let me go back to America? You have got my leg, you 
know I can never march again. Why don't you let me go 
home?" He was decorated with the Croix de Guerre, with 
the following citation: "A very good soldier, seriously 
wounded, advancing resolutely to attack a village very 
strongly fortified." 

I asked him what he saw down in the Balkans. 

"I saw enough — so that I'll never forget it." 

"Well, what did you see?" 



66 SOLDIERS OF THE LEGION 

on the trench and rail at the Germans for their 
swinish propensities and ruthless rapacity. 

A shell dropped into his section. His com- 
rades threw themselves on the ground and 
yelled: — ''Get down, you blamed fool, you'll be 
killed!" 

Ben Azef stood majestically erect, gazed 
calmly and contemplatively at the shell (for- 
tunately it was a dud — one which fails to ex- 
plode) and said, — ''My friends, death to me is 
not destruction. It is the consummation of my 
material life, — the commencement of my Life 
Divine." 

He was shot dead through the heart, in 1916. 

"I saw enough to make me sick." 

"Well, what did you see?" 

"I saw boys seven and eight 3^ears old with throats cut." 

"How many did you see?" 

"Seven or eight at least." 

"What else?" 

"I saw young girls who tried to protect themselves with 
faces streaked with knife wounds — some had their noses cut 
off." 

"What else did you see?" 

"I saw old women laying in corners dying of hunger — 
I saw others out in the fields eating grass." 

Milton Wright, an American citizen, born of Am.erican 
parents, went from Philadelphia to France on a four-masted 
ship. On shore, without a passport, was arrested by the 
gendarmes, who communicated with his captain, who replied: 



FOREIGNERS IN THE LEGION 67 

Ch. A. Hochedlinger, an educated Polish gen- 
tleman, speaks half a dozen languages, was 
twice wounded. When in hospital, he met and 
married a lovely French girl from Algiers, who 
now conducts his business at Bordeaux, while 
he gives his services to France. 

Michal Ballala, an Abyssinian Prince, in spite 
of his color, had the dainty figure and elegant 
bearing of a woman of fashion. He was 
wounded in 1915. 

Colonel Elkington, of the English Royal 
Warwickshire Regiment, served as a private 
soldier in the Legion. He was seriously 
wounded in the attack on the Bois Sabot, Sept. 
28, 1915. He was decorated with the Croix de 
Guerre and Medaille Militaire. 



"We don't want him. He is a German spy." So he was in 
prison four or five months. He was then told he could go 
into the Foreign Legion for the period of the war. He did not 
understand, as he could not speak French. The French 
officials did not speak English. He was signed up for five 
years. The skipper owed him several weeks' wages. His 
going left an opening to take back Frenchmen who would 
give thousands of dollars to get away and escape military 
service. Wright was an innocent, honest fellow, a victim 
of circumstances. But he felt he was wronged and would not 
drill. Finally, after being worried almost crazy, he was 
given a railroad ticket to Boulogne, and mustered out. 

James Ralph Doolittle, of New York, started in the ambu- 
lance. He found it too slow for a live man, so he joined the 
Foreign Legion. He was decorated with the Croix de 
Guerre, with palm. He was a splendid fellow, good soldier 



68 SOLDIERS OF THE LEGION 

One morning, on inspection, an Alsatian 
Captain of the Legion, noticing he was short a 
button, said, — ''No button ? Four days confined 
to quarters." 

Elkington replied, — ''Merci, mon capitaine." 
(Thank you, my captain.) 

On recovery from his serious wounds, he re- 
turned to England and was reinstated in his 
former rank. 

Said Mousseine and his two brothers, sons of 
Sultan Ali of the Grand Comorres, who, being 
too old to fight, sent his best beloved to aid the 
country he holds so dear. Said was promoted 



and a gentleman. He was three times wounded. The last 
time he dropped 600 feet, breaking an ankle and seriously dis- 
figuring his face. He passed his convalescence in America, 
November, 1917. 

Dr. Julian A. Gehrung, of the New York Eye and Ear 
Infirmary, offered his services to the then personally con- 
ducted American Ambulance. He did not know they wanted 
chauffeurs and drivers, who could be ordered about, rather 
than doctors and men of established reputation who could run 
their own affairs. So, he, known in America from coast to 
coast, was snubbed. March 24, 1917, he was offered by the 
French Government, the supervision of a large hospital. 
Accidentally meeting an American soldier of the Legion, a 
French officer came along, patted him on the back and said, 
"Ha, ha, you have got a fine appointment. You have found 
a compatriot. You are now satisfied." Quick as a shot, the 



FOREIGNERS IN THE LEGION 69 

to corporal and transferred to the 22nd Colo- 
nials. 

Augustus St. Gaudens, cousin of the sculptor 
who made the Adams monument in Rock Creek 
cemetery, Washington, D. C, whose father 
lived near the old Academy of Design on Fourth 
Avenue, New York. 

Another cousin of St. Gaudens, Homer, is in 
charge of the 300 men in the U. S. Army, known 
as the Camouflage Corps, or the army in ad- 
vance of the army. 

Varma,"' a Hindoo, black whiskered, silent. 
Let those speculate about him who would, let 
them glean what information they could. 

answer came back, "No, I am not satisfied, I want to be sent 
to the front." 

James Paul, St. Louis, Mo., twenty years old, the first 
American killed in the Legion after the United States went 
into the war, was an enthusiastic grenadier. He was decorated 
with the Croix de Guerre for having alone, with grenades, 
stopped a night attack at Bellay-en-Santerre, July, 1916. He 
was murdered by a treacherous prisoner, whose life he had 
spared. Having killed the Germans in that dugout, excepting 
this prisoner, who threw up his hands and cried "Kamerad," 
Paul started to run to the next dugout, when the German 



* In Aug., 1918, a man same name, same type, was arrested 
in Paris by the gendarmes for making and selling bogus 
diamonds. 



70 SOLDIERS OF THE LEGION 

M. Ariel, a Turk, dealer in antiques in civil 
life. He was seriously wounded on the Somme, 
in 1916. I met him at Legion headquarters a 
year later and found him carrying a purse made 
of his own skin. 

E. Seriadis, a Greek, was a Lieutenant in the 
Army of Greece. He had three medals from the 
Balkan wars. These he refused to wear because 
King Constantine's face disgraced them. He 
was seriously wounded in the body in 1915, and, 
during the winter of 1916, all the toes of both 
feet were frozen ofif. At the age of twenty- 
three, he was mustered out — used up. 

Tex Bondt, a Hollander, a wonderful char- 
acter, a splendid specimen of manhood, brave 

grabbed a rifle and shot him in the back through the heart. 
Barry and other Americans paid special attention to that pris- 
oner. He did not die then, but, some hours later, when the 
Legion was being relieved, he breathed his last. 

George Delpesche, of New York City, an energetic mem- 
ber of the Legion, and an excellent scout, a volunteer for 
dangerous missions, lived through places where others were 
killed; but he was wounded in 1916 and transferred to the 
35th Regiment of the Line with headquarters at Fort Brezille, 
Besancon. Decorated with the Croix de Guerre for taking, 
lalone and unaided, five prisoners. 

Emile Van de Kerkove, Pawtucket, Rhode Island, of Bel- 
gian descent, three times wounded, while in the 246th Regi- 
ment, was decorated with the Medaille Militaire for having 
alone, with a machine gun, repelled a Boche attack. He is 
now in the 10th Regiment of the Line. 




VOLUNTEER 



JAN DER TEX BONDT 



From Holland. Man of birth, wealth and title in his own country. In the Legion 
a private soldier. Photograph taken the day he enlisted. Seriously wounded, was 
cared for in the American Hospital at Neuilly. Keported dead on the field. On his 
return to headquarters had to prove his own identity— and he had no papers, bomeonc 
stole them as lie lay wounded, unable to move. 



^2 SOLDIERS OF THE LEGION 

as a lion, quick as a steel trap, the only son of 
a Count, with an unbroken lineage, extending 
back for 800 years, his record in the Legion 
would fill a book. 



He went out and captured two Germans sin- 
gle handed. He tried to capture a third but was 
discovered. He threw a grenade, and, both 
sides taking alarm, started an engagement. He 
was between the lines and was reported miss- 
ing. Four hours later, he presented himself 
alive. 



In Alsace he worked and slaved to chop up a 
poor peasant woman's wood-pile — just to show 
her a Hollander could keep his word. 

William Lawrence Bresse, a son-in-law of Hamilton Fish, 
was killed in action. 

Ivan Nock, Baltimore, Foreign Legion, formerly sergeant 
in the Maryland Militia, a civil mining engineer, came from 
Peru to help France. He was wounded in the head by an 
explosive bullet near Rheims, April 20, 1917. He was dec- 
orated with the Croix de Guerre, with the following brilliant 
citation: '*A grenadier of remarkable courage, wounded 
April 20, 1917, by a bullet in the head, just after he had shot 
down his fifth German. He cried: *I will not leave the field 
until I have killed my sixth Boche!' He kept his word." 

Paul Norton, architect, died of wounds received in action. 

Kiffin Yates Rockwell, a real American, born in Atlanta, 
Ga. One of his ancestors was a staff officer in Washington's 
Continental Army. Kiffin served the first winter in the 
trenches with the Foreign Legion, and was wounded in a 



FOREIGNERS IN THE LEGION 73 

He was shot through the lungs and taken 
to the hospital. Months later, reporting 
at the depot, he was informed that he was 
dead. 

When on convalescence in Paris, living on 
one meal per day, he met one of France's most 
accomplished and wealthy daughters. He is 
now her acknowledged suitor. 

Seeing him in prison one day, I asked, — 

''What are you in for?" 

"Nothing.'' 

"How's that?" 

"Well, a friend in London asked me why I 
did not write about Legion life, and I responded, 
— 'My dear fellow, if I wrote you all I know 

bayonet attack at Arras, June, 1915. He helped form the 
Franco-American Escadrille. He was killed at Rodern, in cap- 
tured German Alsace, September 23, 1916, by an explosive 
bullet, when in combat with a German machine, and fell a 
few hundred yards back from the trench, within two miles 
of where he shot down his first Boche machine. He was 
decorated with the Medaille Militaire and Croix de Guerre and 
buried at Luxeuil,. Vosges. Asked why he entered the Le- 
gion, he said: "I came to pay the debt we owe, to La Fayette, 
to Rochambeau." 

Paul Rockwell, brother of Kiffin, also spent the first win- 
ter in the Legion. He was badly wounded and mustered out. 
Remaining in Paris, he devoted his time to bringing the two 
Republics closer together, and easing the hardships of his 
former comrades in the Legion, who recognized in him a true 
friend. He was married to Mile. Jeanne Leygenes, whose 



74 SOLDIERS OF THE LEGION 

about the Legion, it would make your hair 
stand on end!' " 



Sorenson, a Dane, from Schleswig-Holstein, 
formerly a policeman at St. Thomas, Danish 
West Indies. He came to me holding a letter 
in his hand and said, — 

"Just see here what those swine have done 
— the}^ have fined my mother a hundred marks 
because she gave a crust of bread to a French 
prisoner." 



Poor fellow, the last I saw of him was on 
Sept. 25, 1915, during the attack. He had been 
buried by a shell — other soldiers had run over 
him in the rush. After he worked through the 

father was formerly Minister of Public Instruction. He is 
at present on the front, attached to the General Headquarters 
of the French Army. 

Robert Rockwell, of Cincinnati, Ohio, thought cutting up 
as a surgeon in hospital not strenuous enough for a live wire, 
so he joined the Aviation to do a little aerial operating. 

F. Wilson, one of the old originals, used up on the front, 
went into hospital service. At the regimental hospital, at 
Orleans, he made a specialty of tending and easing the path 
of poor, distressed brother Americans. 

Billy Thorin, Canton, S. D., was wounded in the head at 
the attack of the Legion on the Bois Sabot, September 28, 
1915. He returned to the front and was gassed on the Somme, 
July, 1916. He was fourteen months in hospital and mustered 
out September, 1917. Formerly, he was a marine in the U. S. 
Navy, also a sailor in the Chinese Imperial Navy. As a 



FOREIGNERS IN THE LEGION 75 

loose earth and freed himself, I listened to him 
as in clumsy French, English and Danish he 
apologized to the captain for the broken straps 
of his knapsack and a lost gun. His round 
chest was flattened out, his face dirty and 
bloody, grazed by hob-nailed boots, and blood 
was trickling from a round hole in his forehead. 
The captain, a good sort, patted him on the 
back and told him to go to the Red Cross Sta- 
tion. The poor fellow staggered away and was 
never heard from again. 

Guimeau, Mauritius Islands, a plantation 
owner, of French descent, under British rule, 
spoke French but no English. He was an ener- 
getic character and a valuable member of the 
machine gun section. 

South Sea trader, he fought cannibals in the New Hebrides. 
He had been seA^erely wounded in the Mexican War. He says: 
"Compared with a German, a Mexican is a gentleman." 

Charles Jean Drossner, San Francisco, California, one of 
the old originals, went through the hard fighting in 1915, He 
was wounded in the hand and mustered out. He is the son 
of a capitalist. A snippy under-officer in the Legion, not lik- 
ing his independent remarks about the size of the eats, said: 
"You have come into the Legion to get your belly full." The 
American replied, "I may not get very much food, I don't 
see that any one does, but I have money. Here, buy some- 
thing for the boys." He opened his vest and handed over 
three 1,000 franc notes. 

Maurice Davis, of Brooklyn, New York, rose to the rank 
of lieutenant and was killed in action, 

Harold Buckley Willis was reported killed September 3, 



76 SOLDIERS OF THE LEGION 

In 1915, after taking several lessons in tac- 
tics, he went to the lieutenant, — 

''What are we waiting here for? Why don't 
we go to the front?" 

"We are waiting for the guns." 

''How many are needed for our section and 
how much do they cost?" 

"Two, at 2,000 francs each." 

"Well, here are 4,000 francs. Buy them and 
let us get out where we belong." 

When he was about to change to the British 
Army, the Colonel of the Legion, the Chief of 
the Battalion and the Captain of the Company 
waited for five minutes while the British Am- 
bassador explained to Guimeau the benefits of 
changing armies. After listening to the finish 

1917, but later developments proved that, during a combat with 
German machines, he was compelled to land on German 
soil, August 18, and was taken prisoner. 

Raoiil Lufberry, W^allingford, Conn., Foreign Legion, 
changed to Aviation, a real cosmopolitan American, for fif- 
teen years had roamed the two hemispheres. Crippled by 
rheumatism, he rode his aerial carriage and killed German 
aviators for recreation. He served as a United States soldier 
in the Philippines and held the marksmanship record in his 
regiment. While engaged in railroad work in India, on 
refusing to say "Sir" to a prominent citizen of Bombay, he 
lost his job, just about the time the P. C. felt the toe of Luf- 
berry's boot. He traveled in Turkey, Japan, China, Africa and 
South America. October 12, 1916, the day Norman Prince 
was mortally wounded, Lufberry got his fifth Boche machine. 
By December, 1917, he had brought down, officially, eighteen. 



FOREIGNERS IN THE LEGION "]-] 

he said, — ''Will you repeat that in French? I 
did not understand a word you said." Know- 
ing his desire to leave the Legion, his Captain 
asked, why he, of French descent, speaking only 
that language, should not be satisfied with his 
comrades, who were proud of him. He replied, 
— "The British flag is the flag of my country. 
It protects me. I want to protect it." So he 
went to Great Britain, and the British, not 
knowing what to do with this handy, ready Le- 
gionnaire, sent him to school. 

Dinah Salifon, son of an African King from 
the Soudan, Egypt, enlisted in 1914. He was 
promoted to a Lieutenancy and decorated with 
the Legion of Honor. He later became Com- 
missioner of Police at Brazzarville. 



He was the first American to be awarded the gold medal of 
the Aero Club of France. He was also decorated with the 
Croix de Guerre with six palms and a chevalier of the Legion 
of Honor. In the spring of 1918, he was transferred and 
promoted major in the American Army. Engaged in battle, a 
bullet from the enemy punctured his gasoline tank. He 
jumped from the burning machine to his death. 

Joseph C. Stehlin, Sheepshead Bay, Long Island, brought 
down a Boche machine, when he had only been twenty days 
in service on the front. He attacked three enemy machines 
alone and brought down one with a pilot, observer, and two 
guns. 

George Meyer, Brooklyn, New York, was killed in the 
Foreign Legion, by a shell, while waiting for the order to go 
over the top near Rheims, April, 1917. 

Robert Arrowsmith, New Jersey, was wounded in the hip, 



y^ SOLDIERS OF THE LEGION 

Etchevarry, a French convict, escaped from 
French Guiana, made his way to the United 
States and returned to France, under an as- 
sumed name, to fight for his native land. He 
enlisted in the Foreign Legion. He made an 
enviable record. But he was recognized and 
ordered to return to the penal settlement. Meas- 
ures were taken in his behalf by the Society of 
the Rights of Men, in response to whose ap- 
peal President Poincare signed a reprieve. 
Etchevarr}^ returned to the front a free man, in 
December, 1915. 

Nick Korneis, a Greek push-cart peddler, 
who used to sell bananas at Twenty-third 
Street and Avenue B, New York City, was dec- 
orated for bravery at Verdun, with the follow- 

and lying in hospital when America entered the war. The 
wound not healing quickly, he objected to hospital life, be- 
cause: "There is so much going on, and so much work to be 
done." 

Dr. David D. Wheeler, Buffalo, New York, practicing 
physician, thought being a doctor in the rear was too much 
of a shirker's business. So, he went into the Legion at the 
front; and the Legionnaires still talk about the American, who 
wore no shirt most of the time, who never unslung his knap- 
sack en route, who tented alone, who never bent the body or 
dodged a bullet, who was supposed killed at the Bois Sabot, 
but lived through it and was found in hospital. Wounded 
himself seriously, he had cared for others professionally in 
"No-Man's-Land," while under fire. He was decorated with 
the Croix de Guerre with palm and mustered out, used up. 

John Charton, Foreign Legion, seriously wounded by a 



FOREIGNERS IX THE LEGION 79 

ing citation: ''Korneis, Nick, Legionnaire, 11th 
Company, Foreign Legion — Elite grenadier, 
who on August 20, 1917, won the admiration 
of all his comrades by his courage and contempt 
for danger. He led his comrades to the con- 
quest of a trench, which was defended with en- 
ergy, and which was captured along a distance 
of 1,500 yards, after several hours of bloody 
combat; — took single handed, numerous pris- 
oners; — already cited twice in Army Orders." 

Rene Betrand, New Jersey, was over two 
years on the front, a member of the Regiment 
Colonial of Morocco, which is part of the fa- 
mous 19th Army Corps. He received the Croix 
de Guerre for bravery, and at Douaumont, 
Oct. 4, 1915, the Legion of Honor for person- 
machine gun bullet in the attack on Bellay-en-Santerre, July 4, 
1916, after months in hospital was sent back as reinforcement 
to a Zouave Regiment. He then went into the Aviation at 
Avord. 

Kenneth Weeks, of Boston, 25 years old, a graduate of 
the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and a member of 
Delta Kappa Epsilon Fraternity, author of "Driftwood," "Esau 
and the Beacon," "Five Impractical Plays," and "Science, 
Sentiment and Sense." Passed the first winter in Battalion 
D, of the 1st Legion in Rheims Sector. He was in the Arras 
attack of May 9th and 10th, and mentioned for bravery. Act- 
ing as a grenadier in an attack on Givenchy, June 17, 1915, he 
was first reported missing, then captured; and, several months 
later, officially, killed. He said, "Mother, is it not better that 
I should die than that the Germans should come over here?" 

Paul Raoul le Dous, Detroit, Michigan, promoted to ser- 



8o SOLDIERS OF THE LEGION 

ally finishing off a Boche machine gun section 
and bringing in the gun. That is the record 
a well built, uninjured man on board ship gave 
me when I asked him how he had earned the 
Legion of Honor, and why he wore the foura- 
gere of the Foreign Legion. In July, 1918, a 
man, same name, turned up in Paris decorated 
with nine medals, minus an arm and a leg, 
claiming his body bore more than 30 bullet and 
bayonet wounds. The gendarmes promptly ar- 
rested him as the world's greatest fakir, de- 
clared he had lost the arm and leg in a railroad 
accident and that five imprisonments instead of 
five citations composed his record. 

geant, decorated with the Medaille Militaire for saving his 
captain's life on the Ancre. 

Ernest Walbron, Paterson, New Jersey, volunteered at 
the start of the war, fought in Artois, Verdun and the Somme. 
In August, 1916, was detailed as interpreter to an English 
Regiment, while leading it to the front was hit by a piece of 
shell. As no one else knew the way, he kept going till he 
reached the destination, then fainted. He could not be taken 
back on account of the bombardment. Gangrene set in and 
(his leg was amputated. He was decorated with the French 
Croix de Guerre and Medaille Militaire, also with the English 
Military Medal. 

Andrew Walbron, brother of Ernest, decorated with the 
Croix de Guerre, Corporal in the 78th Regiment, has been 
wounded four times. 

Paul Maffart, American, Foreign Legion, 19 years of age, 
killed. 

Haviland, Minnesota, brought down his first Boche ma- 
chine, April 28, 1917. 

Ronald Wood Hoskier, South Orange, New Jersey, a Har- 
vard graduate, Aviator. His father is also in France in Red 
Cross work. Hoskier fell while he and his companion were 



CHAPTER VI 

ENGLISHMEN AND RUSSIANS LEAVE 

About 350 Englishmen were with the Amer- 
icans in the same Battalion of the 2nd Legion. 
They had enlisted when the Huns were advanc- 
ing on Paris. Common peril drew the bravest 
of all countries to the front. Possibly, they 
were promised later transfer to the English 
Army; but, once in the Legion, they were as 
nuns in a convent, to do as told, dead to the 
outside world. 

An American writer has said, "England's 
greatest assets are patriotism and money/' He 
overlooked the foundation of both — MEN. The 



fighting six Boche machines. He and two Boche fell among 
the advancing English troops and were all killed, April 23, 
1917. Cited in General Orders of the French Army: "''Ser- 
geant Ronald Wood Hoskier, an American, who volunteered 
for service in the French Army. He showed splendid conduct 
and self-sacrifice. He fell on April 23, 1917, after defending 
himself heroically against three enemy machines." 

Paul Perigord, college professor, formerly an instructor in 
St. Paul Seminary, later a parish priest at Olivia, Minn., went 
to France and into the trenches at the outbreak of hostilities. 
Cited four times in army orders, decorated with the Croix 
de Guerre, promoted to a Lieutenancy in the 14th Regiment of 
the Line. Later, he returned to America on a patriotic lectur- 
ing mission. 

Victor Chapman, son of John Jay Chapman, was one of 
the splendid fellows that it was a pleasure to meet and never 

8t 



82 SOLDIERS OF THE LEGION 

Englishman dares to do and does it. He knows 
his rights. He insists on them. 

After the Germans were driven back at the 
Marne, with trench conditions estabHshed, 
these men demanded to be sent home to fight 
for their native land. They went to the Cap- 
tain, who could not help. They went to the 
Colonel, who would not. They had the British 
Ambassador request their release from the 
French War Department, with no better re- 
sults. Ere they were transferred, the subject 
was brought up in the Chamber of Deputies. 

Just before they left, a number went to the 
company captain with their breakfasts, cups of 
black coffee, in their hands. 



to forget. Changing from the Legion to the Aviation he was 
killed near Verdun, June 23, 1916, in a battle with French 
comrades against German machines. The "Petit Parisian" 
headline announcing the event, said: "The king of the air 
dies like a king." Harvard University students have raised 
a fund, known as the Victor Chapman Scholarship Fund, of 
$25,000, bearing interest of $1,000 a year, which is set aside for 
the education of a worthy French student. A young man 
from Lyons is at present at Harvard, perpetuating and ce- 
menting the ties for which Chapman gave his life. 

Eugene Galliard, Minneapolis, Minn., served two years in 
the trenches, twice wounded, was mustered out as a lieu- 
tenant and returned to America. 

John Huffer, an American of the Legion, was decorated 
with the Medaille Militaire, and the Croix de Guerre, with 
five citations, four being palms. 



ENGLISHMEN AND RUSSIANS LEAVE 83 

"What is this, mon capitaine?" 
''Your little breakfasts, mes enfants." 
"This would not keep a chipping sparrow 
alive — let alone a man." 

"You received a half loaf of bread yester- 
day." 

"Yes, but we ate that yesterday." 
"Well, I am sorry. That is the regular ra- 
tions of the French Army. I cannot change it." 

Walking away, disgruntled, a cockney mut- 
tered to his comrade, — '' 'E thinks we are 
blooming canaries !" 

The bull-dog tactics of the persistent English 
did not appeal to the officers of the Legion. 
Probably the last to go were Poole and Darcy, 

Bennet Molter, an American, went from Mexico to 
France, changed his animosity from Carranza to the Kaiser; 
and was seriously wounded July, 1917. 

Christopher Charles, of Brooklyn, New York, 21 years 
old, machine gun operator, has been in all attacks smce Sep- 
ternber 1914. He was decorated with the Croix de Guerre at 
Chalons, July 14, 1917. At Bordeaux, I met his marraine 
(godmother), who said,— "Yes, I know Christopher Charles. 
I met him when he was wounded in hospital here. That boy 
is an American. His place is in his own country now. I 
will get him out of the Legion if I have to go to Washmgton 

to do it." ^ 1 r T T 1 J 

Norman Barclay, New York City, formerly of Long Island, 
aviator, was killed by aeroplane, nose diving. Had two 
years' service on the front before being snuffed out. Killed 
June 22, 1917. 



84 SOLDIERS OF THE LEGION 

two powerful silent fellows, who were in hos- 
pital, delayed by unhealed wounds. 

Originally, there were two Darcy brothers. 
While making a machine gun emplacement, 
they heard a noise in front. One of the broth- 
ers with half the detachment went out to in- 
vestigate. The other stayed at work. A Ger- 
man shell dropped into the emplacement and 
killed, or knocked senseless, every man. Red 
Cross workers, who gathered together the mu- 
tilated and the shell-shocked Darcy, were star- 
tled to hear some one in front. Looking around, 
they saw the other Darcy drag his shattered 
limbs over the edge of a shell hole. He expired, 
saying, "The damned cowards ran away and 
left me.'' The others were all killed. 



Robert Mulhauser entered the Legion in 1914, changed to 
the 170th in 1915, was decorated with the Croix de Guerre and 
promoted to Lieutenant at Verdun. He has been cited in 
Army Orders three times. 

Walter Appleton, New York City, scion of the great Amer- 
ican publishing house. The last time I met him was north 
of Suippe, in the middle of the night, unloading barrels from 
a wagon in the darkness, where the first line men connected 
with the commissary. Zouaves with canvas pails of wine, 
Moroccans carrying loaves of bread on their bayonets, Le- 
gionnaires looking after their own, and ready to pick up any 
straggling food. Dead horses and men lay alongside, a Ger- 
man captured cannon, pointed to the rear, was near-by, sur- 
rounded by broken caissons and German dead. Shells were 
exploding overhead. We ran into each other in the mix-up, 
shook hands, said "Hello," and separated into the night. 



ENGLISHMEN AND RUSSIANS LEAVE 85 

In June, 1915, after six months of constant 
warfare, poor food, no furloughs, cold winter 
weather and scanty clothing had so brought 
down the morale of the men that they didn't 
care whether they lived or not. They were ab- 
solutely fed up to the limit on misery. 

Many Russian Jews volunteered, as had the 
English, to help France. Russia later called 
her subjects to the colors. Negotiations were 
under way in Paris to facilitate the exchange 
of Russians from the Foreign Legion to the 
Russian Army. They were informed that the 
Colonel had received orders to permit their re- 
turn to their native land. 

Possibly, the negotiations had been com- 
pleted — maybe not. Perhaps the Colonel was 



Alan Seeger, a Harvard graduate, killed in bayonet at- 
tack, in "No-Man's-Land," Independence Day, July 4, 1916. 
Buried in the Army Zone. The only tears that will water the 
flowers that grow on his hillside grave will be the evening 
dew, even as he dropped his brilliant thoughts on the close 
of life. 

Seeger Gems: — "I love to think that if my blood has the 
privilege to be shed, or the blood of the French soldier to 
flow, then I despair not entirely of this world." 

"When at banquet comes the moment of toasts, when 
faces are illumined with the joy of life and laughter resounds, 
then flows towards the lips that which I at other times much 
loved, from the depth of the cup with the foam, as an atom of 
blood on the juice of the vine." 

"That other mighty generations may play in peace to their 
heritage of joy, one foreigner has marched voluntarily toward 



86 SOLDIERS OF THE LEGION 

not officially instructed. However, the Russian 
volunteers, relying on their information, v\^hen 
ordered to dig trenches, refused to do so. They 
demanded to be sent home. Officers argued 
with them and pointed out the penalty of refus- 
ing to obey when in front of the enemy. They 
didn't care, would not work, and could not be 
forced. So ten of the ringleaders were court- 
martialed, sentenced to death, taken out into 
the woods near the little village of Merfy, blind- 
folded — ^shot. Tearing the bandage from his 
eyes and baring his chest to the bullet, one cried- 
out, "Long live France ; long live the Allies, but 
God damn the Foreign Legion !" 

Next morning the others refused to work 
a^ain, — "You have killed our brothers. Kill 

his heroic martyrdom and marched under the most noble of 
standards." 

Letter to his mother: 

"I am feeling fine, in my element, for I have always 
thirsted for this kind of thing, to be present always where 
the pulsations are liveliest. Every minute here is worth 
weeks of ordinary experience. If I do not come out I will 
share the good fortune of those who disappear at the pinnacle 
of their careers!" 

"Esteeming less the forfeit that he paid 

Than undishonored that his flag might float 
Over the towers of liberty, he made 

His breast the bulwark and his blood the moat." 

"Under the little cross, where they rise, 

The soldier rests. Now, round him, undismayed, 



EXGLISHMEX AND RUSSIANS LEAVE Sy 

us also — we are not afraid to die.'' They were 
not killed but were court-martialed and sen- 
tenced to fifteen years' penal servitude. 

The third morning, no one would work. 
These cheerful fatalists said, "We are Russians 
— our country calls us — we demand to go, and 
you tell us to go to work. We will not work. 
You killed our brothers, kill us also. You may 
mutilate our bodies, but you cannot crush our 
souls/' These also court-martialed, were sen- 
tenced to ten years' penal servitude. 

There were many Russians. They showed 
no disposition to yield. Russians simply do not 
know how to compromise. The load was get- 
ting too heavy, — even for the broad shoulders 

The cannon thund.ers, and at night he lies 
At peace beneath the eternal fusillade." 

G. Casmese, real friend, old soldier of the Legion, got 
mixed up and disappeared in the quick-acting movements of 
these chain-lightning times. 

Russell A. Kelly, son of a New York stock broker, went 
through the hard and early fighting and was killed at Giv- 
enchy, June 17, 1915. His father, a true descendant of the 
Isle of Unrest, on hearing the news said, — "He did his duty — 
I do not complain." 

John Huffert, New York, would not drive a motor car in 
the rear, so he scrambled out on top. In an aeroplane, he 
became the hero of several desperate battles above. 

Juan Roxas, Manila. Philippine Islands, son of the larg- 
est land owner in the Philippines, having absorbed American 
freedom, he is carr^^ing it to Germany. 



88 SOLDIERS OF THE LEGION 

of officers of the Legion. The underground 
wireless had been working. A sigh of relief 
went up when a high Russian official, breast 
covered with decorations, arrived from Paris. 
About the same time, orders came from the 
French headquarters to stop proceedings. The 
penal servitude sentences were not carried out; 
but they could not bring back the dead. 

Inside of one month, Battalion F of the 2nd 
Legion, to which the unhappy men belonged, 
was merged with others. In two months, the 
Russians were transferred to the Russian 
Army. Four months later, the Regiment had 
ceased. 



William E. Dugan, 27 years old, Rochester, New York, 
graduate of Massachusetts Institute of Technology, joined the 
Legion, September 19, 1914, changed to aviation, October 15, 
1915. Decorated with Croix de Guerre, wounded at Verdun. 

Kenneth Proctor Littaner, Sergeant in military life, poet in 
civil life, decorated and cited, as follows: — "A good pilot, 
brave, devoted to duty, an excellent soldier, invariably show- 
ing energy and coolness, especially on February 8, 1917, in 
course of an engagement with a German machine, his aero- 
plane hit in several places, he compelled his adversary to 
retreat." 

Narutz, an American philosopher, a serious personage, 
went through the hard fighting of 1915 and was killed on the 
Somme July, 1916. 

Norman Prince, Boston, Mass., a Harvard man of splendid 
character, was descending in the early darkness at Corcieux, 
when his machine ran into a telegraph wire and tipped. 
Taken to Gerardmer, while lying unconscious, the Legion of 
Honor was pinned to his breast alongside of the Croix de 
Guerre and the Medaille Militaire. That day he had brought 



CHAPTER VII 

TRENCHES 

The real, well-made, manicured trench is 
from two and a half to three feet wide and eight 
or ten feet deep. The narrower the trench, the 
better. It gives the least space for German 
shells to drop in and blow occupants out. The 
more crooked the trench the better. The enemy 
has smaller chance to make an enfilading (rak- 
ing lengthwise) fire. Here only are narrow- 
ness and crookedness virtues. 

Each trench is embellished with channels, 
mines, saps, tunnels, subterranean passages 

down a Boche machine, the third he had accounted for. 
Cited as follows: — "Prince, Sergeant, Pilot in Squadron V. B. 
108: — An American citizen, who enlisted for the duration of 
the war; excellent military pilot who always shows proof of 
the greatest audacity and presence of mind; — ever impatient 
to start, he has executed numerous expeditions of bombard- 
ment, particularly successful in a region which was difficult 
in consequence of the firing of the enemy's artillery, by which 
his aeroplane was frequently hit." Killed Octobed 15, 1916. 

Fred Prince, brother of Norman, is now in the aviation, 
while their father is one of the best friends of the Foreign 
Leg-ion boys; and they, like France, do not forget. 

Dr. Van Vorst, from the middle west, a Spaniash War 
veteran in America, adjutant in the Foreign Legion. He in- 
troduced new sanitary ideas into the camps of repose and 
kept the stretcher bearers busy cleaning up. 

89 



90 SOLDIERS OF THE LEGION 

and bomb proof structures of various sorts. Out 
in front, are from ten to fifty yards of barbed 
wire entanglements, through which a Jack rab- 
bit could not go without getting hung up. The 
German has about the same arrangement on his 
side. That piece of open ground between the 
German wire and the French wire is known as 
''No-Man's-Land.'' In the night, patrols of men, 
German and French, promenade this strip, to 
guard against surprise attacks, and make ob- 
servations of the enemy. 

Patrols often meet in conflict. Some never 
come back. Others, wounded, must lie in shell 
holes, awaiting an opportunity to return. At 
the sign of an attack, darkness is lighted by 
star shells. It is then necessary for the patrol 

William Thaw, Pittsburgh, Pa., passed the first winter, 
1914-15, in the trenches with the Legion, rose in aviation to 
lieutenant. One of the best liked Americans in France. Cited 
frequently in General Orders, decorated for bravery, wounded 
in the arm. Promoted to Major in U. S. Army. One Citation: 
"Thaw, pilot, corporal at that time of Squadron C. 42: — Has 
always given proof of fine qualities, courage and coolness. On 
two separate occasions, in the course of scouting tours, his 
machine was violently shelled and was struck by shrapnel, 
great damage being done. Nevertheless, he continued to ob- 
serve the enemy's positions and did not return until he had 
accomplished the object of his mission." Another citation: 
"Lieutenant Wm. Thaw, an excellent pilot. He returned to 
the front after receiving a serious wound, and has never failed 
to set an example of courage and dash. During the German 
retreat, he showed initiative and intelligence by landing near 



TRENCHES 91 

to get back to the wire-cut lane, or tunneled 
hole under the wires where they went out, their 
only refuge and chance for safety. 

Back of the first line trench is the second, 
back of that a third. In some places, there are 
a dozen lines of trenches, different distances 
apart, varying with local conditions. From 
the rear, at right angles, interweaving like 
meshes of a net, are the communication and 
auxiliary branches through which men bring 
up supplies, provisions and ammunition. 

In the front line trenches, in addition to the 
infantry's rifles and grenades, are machine guns 
and trench mortars. Around the second line, 
the 7Ss and field artillery. About the third 

troops on the march, so as to place them in possession of 
information. Brought down his second aeroplane, April 26th." 

Braxton Bigelow, grandson of John Bigelow, author, New 
York City, a mining engineer by profession, followed this 
occupation in Alaska and South America, was promoted to 
captain in France and disappeared in a trench raid. July 23, 
1917. 

Henry Claude, Boston, Mass., one of the Legion grena- 
diers, was cited in the Orders of the Day and decorated for 
conspicuous gallantry at Auberive, June, 1917. 

Edward M. Collier, Bass Rocks, Iowa, Aviator, injured in 
a smash-up June, 1917. 

Elliot C. Cowdin, a Harvard man, member of the Foreign 
Legion, home address Gramercy Park, Manhattan, and Cedar- 
hurst, L. L First American to receive the Medaille Militaire. 
Citation: — "Cowdin, Sergeant, Pilot in Squadron V. B. 108, an 



92 SOLDIERS OF THE LEGION 

line, with the reserves, stand heavy artillery. 
So, w^hen one side attacks, they must cross 
that open ''No-Man's-Land," go through these 
barbed w^ire entanglements, meet the rifle 
fire and grenades of the infantry, and those 
three row^s of artiller}^ You can readily see 
w^hy the line remains stationary along the front 
for so long, also how, when it has been broken 
or bent, there has been such great loss of life. 

It was in a bomb proof shelter of a first line 
trench, in the middle of the night, at Sillery- 
Sur-Marne, that I met the ''American," whose 
real name was Dubois. I did not then under- 
stand French and had been placed on guard by 
a French corporal who could not speak English. 
He pointed to the hole, t*hen at the Boche 

American citizen engaged for the duration of the war; ex- 
ecutes daily long bombardment expeditions, is an excellent 
pilot and has several times attacked the enemy's aeroplanes. 
He attacked them and forced them successively to descend; 
one of them appeared to be seriously damaged, as was his 
own and his motor by the firing from the German avion; 
his helmet also bore the traces of several shots." 

Snowy Williams has been in different sections of the 
Foreign Legion, in Serbia, Albania, Egypt, Africa and France. 
He was gassed, wounded, taken prisoner, almost burned to 
death in hospital; but made his escape, was decorated with 
the Croix de Guerre and twice cited in Army orders. A 
famous jockey, he runs with the Legion rather than with 
horses, and comes out, in both cases, a winner. 

Everett Buckley, Kilbourne, Illinois, a former racing auto- 
mobile driver, having competed with Barney Oldfield. On 



TRENCHES 93 

trench opposite, and walked away. The post 
was well protected by sandbags and solid tim- 
bers overhead, with an observation hole, one 
inch deep by three inches wide, cut into armor 
plate, in front. The usual, intermittent war- 
fare was in progress, and it suddenly devel- 
oped into a battle. The post was out on an 
angle. Rifle flashes were all about. No one 
was near in the open trench. So, getting un- 
easy, I became afraid I was cut off or left 
behind. 

I started toward the trench just as a big shell 
burst there. I ducked back, concluded the shel- 
tered post was better than the open trench, 
then glued my eye on the 1x3 observation hole. 
Yes, no doubt, the Germans were advancing in 



December 15, 1917, during a battle with a two sector Boche 
machine, had his control cut, dropped 8,000 feet and arrived, a 
prisoner, in Germany. Eight months later made his escape 
into Switzerland. 

M. Paringfield, of San Francisco, a soldier of the Legion, 
was shot below the knee in an attack, spring of 1917. Killed 
in autumn, 1917. 

Allen Richard Blount, son of Richard Blount, the chemist 
of North Carolina and Paris, entered the Foreign Legion with 
his father's consent, who said he would be satisfied if the 
boy killed five Boches. One morning that young man brought 
thirty German prisoners into the French lines, received the 
Croix de Guerre, a brilliant citation and a trip to Paris and 
went back for more. 

Edward Charles Genet, Sassening, New York, killed in 
aeroplane near Ham, buried at Golancourt in a German ceme- 



94 SOLDIERS OF THE LEGION 

mass formation. I could see, through the little 
hole, against the sky line, the bayonets on their 
guns. A noise near my ear compelled my at- 
tention. Then I felt and, saw better. Those 
bayonets were hairs, sticking straight out from 
a big, fat, impudent rat, who sniffed along and 
looked through the hole squarely into my eye. 
I spat at the rat, which retreated a few inches, 
then stopped to await developments. This 
nerve angered me and I started to go outside 
to throw a rock at the rodent, when a voice 
behind said in English, — ''Damn it, that cussed 
sergeant has plugged it up." 

From the shelter I could see a nondescript 
figure clad in an old, abbreviated batn-robe, tas- 
sels hanging down in front, shoes unlaced, rifle 

tery. The machine was smashed, the body was placed in a 
wagon, drawn by one horse, which also carried the wooden 
cross that marked the grave. The U. S. flag covered the 
coffin. 

F. W. Zinn, Battle Creek, Michigan, graduate of University 
of Michigan, passed the first year in the Legion. In Cham- 
pagne attack, September, 1915, was hit by a chunk of metal 
which did not break the skin, but broke bones and made in- 
ternal troubles. On recovery, he went into the Aviation. 
Later he was promoted to Captain in the U. S. Army. As 
modest as he is brave, decorated for gallantry, having received 
two citations in two weeks, he said: — "Do not say anything 
about me, there are too many unknown Frenchmen who 
deserve publicity more than I." 

Harman Edwin Hall, killed at Givenchy, June 17, 1917. 

W. R. Hall, or Bert Hall, of the old Legion, who went 



TRENCHES 95 

in hand, ruefully gazing" at a new stack of sand- 
bags, which blocked a small exit into ''No- 
Man's-Land." He might have been a soldier 
but he did not look it. Pie might have been 
French, but America was stamped all over that 
free-moving, powerful figure, in his quick act- 
ing, decisive manner and set jaws, square-cut, 
like a paving block. 

Thus, we two Americans, who had arrived 
from different directions, each animated by 
the same idea, sat down at the jumping oft' 
place amid those unnatural surroundings and 
got acquainted. 

It was bizarre. The devilishness, the beauty, 
alternately, shocked the senses and threw a 

into the Aviation, well-known, well-liked, good soldier, dec- 
orated with the Croix de Guerre with three citations. On fur- 
lough in America June, 1918. Author of "En 1' Air." 

James Norman Hall, Corporal, Colfax, Iowa, aviator, 
author of "Kitchener's Mob," shot down two Boche machines 
and destroyed a third. Four days later, June 25, 1917, fighting 
seven machines, was wounded, and reported killed. However, 
he managed to make the French territory and landed in an 
empty trench with the wings of his machine resting on each 
side. Writing to a friend, he said: — "I am flying 125 miles 
an hour and now I see why birds sing." Hall was the first 
American aviator to win the distinguished service cross of the 
American Army. 

John Earle Fike, Wooster, Ohio, Foreign Legion, killed 
at Givenchy, June 17, 1915. 

James B. McConnell, 28 years of age, born in Chicago, 



96 SOLDIERS OF THE LEGION 

charming spell. Darkness and grotesque shad- 
ows intermingled with colored illumination, 
scattering streams of golden hail, followed by 
red flame and acolytes, while sharp, white 
streaks of cannon fire winked, blinked, were lost 
in the never-ending din. Between the occa- 
sional roll of musketry and the rat-rat-tat-tat of 
machine guns, we watched the pyrotechnic 
display and talked. 

Yes, he was an American, and had been ten 
months without a furlough. He had been out 
in front sniping all the afternoon. That cheap- 
skate sergeant, who is always nosing around, 
must have missed him and closed up the outlet. 

"Yes," he soliloquized, "the world is not fit 
to live in any more. The Kaiser has mobilized 

graduate of Haverford, Pennsylvania, and University of Vir- 
ginia, a Railroad Land and Industrial Agent, by profession. 
Writing for an American magazine, he was killed before the 
material was printed. He said: — ''The more I saw of the 
splendidness of the fight the French were making, the more I 
felt like a slacker." He was decorated with the Croix de 
Guerre, and killed March 26, 1917, while fighting two German 
aviators. His body was found amid the wreckage of the 
machine by French troops on the advance through the 
devastated district. The old bullet scarred propeller from 
this wrecked machine, which formerly marked his grave, has 
now been replaced by two cannon, erected by special order 
of the U. S. Government. McConnell said, — "The war may 
kill me but I have to thank it for much." 

Schuyler Darning, American citizen, soldier of the Legion, 
killed in attack August, 1917. 



TRENCHES 97 

God Almighty. The Crown Prince said he 
could bring the Devil from hell with his brave 
German band. The Mexicans broke up my 
business and destroyed my happy home. Here 
in France, they made me take off my good 
clothes and don these glad rags. This bath 
robe is all I have left of my ancient grandeur — 
and there is not much of it, but it is all wool 
and a yard wide — not as long as it used to be, 
but it is warm. I know it looks like hell, but it 
is a sort of comfort to me, and is associated with 
happier days. 

''Yes,'*' he ruminated, ''if I am not careful I 
won't have enough left to make a pocket hand- 
kerchief. Here I have taken five or six pair 
of Russian socks from it, and bandaged up 

Dr. James A. Blake, American Surgeon, who gave his 
services to France at the outbreak of the war, was requested 
by the French Government to take charge of a hospital with 
300 beds in the Avenue du Bois du Bologne. He was 
decorated with the Legion of Honor. 

Marius Roche, New York, arrived in France in 1914, only 
17 years of age, decorated with the Croix de Guerre, wounded 
at Verdun. 

Edward Mandell Stone, a Harvard graduate, was the first 
American volunteer killed in France. 

N. Frank Clair, Columbus, Ohio, died in hospital of 
wounds received in action. 

Nelson Larson, a former American sailor, was killed on 
the Somme on our Independence Day, July 4, 1916. 

Brock B. Bonnell, Brooklyn, New York, soldier of the 
Legion, seriously wounded, returned home to America, dec- 



98 SOLDIERS OF THE LEGION 

Pierre's wound, and I only have enough for 
four more pairs of socks after I have taken 
some pieces to clean my rifle w^ith." 

He v^as a man of unusual history, even for 
the Legion. Some months previous, seeing an 
Alsatian ofiicer strike a small man, the Amer- 
ican stepped up and said : ''Why don't you take 
a man your own size?" For answer the officer 
pulled a revolver and thrust it at his breast. 
Dubois, gazing down through the eyes of the 
officer, clear into his heart, said : ''Shoot, damn 
you, shoot. You dare not; you have not got 
the nerve!" 

He was an expert gymnast. He played the 
piano, accompanying the singers at concerts, 

orated with the Croix de Guerre, the Medaille Militaire and a 
wooden leg. 

Frank Whitmore, Richmond, Va., decorated for conspicu- 
ous bravery, on the Somme, July, 1916, wounded in the spring 
offensive, 1917, now in hospital, covered with bandages, 
medals and glory. 

Edward Morlae, California, an old American ex-soldier. 
He served in the Philippines with the First California Heavy 
Artillery, then in the Mexican Civil War, then turned up in 
France and tried to pass Spanish conversation off for French. 
He was wounded in October, 1915, decorated with the Croix 
de Guerre; and is now in America. A good soldier and ag- 
gressive character, he is one man who will always be remem- 
bered by Americans in the Legion. 

H. W. Farnsworth, Harvard graduate, Boston, Mass., 
killed in attack, 1915, was a correspondent of the Providence 



TRENCHES 99 

during repose. When encored, he came back 
with a song in French. In conquered Alsace, 
he spoke German with the natives. 

On the day we made the 48-kilometer march 
to the summit of Ballon d'Alsace and back, 
while the company was resting Dubois was 
striding up and down, knapsack on back, 
hands in pockets. I said: ''What are you 
doing? Can't you sit down and rest?" 

"Oh,'' he replied, "I was telling the Heuten- 
ant that instead of poking along with these 
short, fiddling steps, the men should march out 
like this, — like we do in America !" It is a fact 
that the French take the longest strides, and 
are the best marchers in the world ! 



Journal and in Mexico when the war broke out. From France 
in his last letter home he wrote, — "If anything happens to me 
you may be sure that I was on my way to victory for these 
troops may have been demolished, but never beaten." He 
preferred to become a Petit Zephyr de la Legion Etrangere 
and to sleep, like the birds, under the open sky, surrounded 
by congenial comrades, exchanging horizons with each season. 

J. S. Carstairs, a Harvard graduate, was a member of the 
Foreign Legion. 

Geo. W. Ganson put in the first winter in the trenches 
with the Foreign Legion. He was a Harvard graduate whose 
ministerial manner did not prevent the mud from hanging to 
his clothes, nor the whiskers on his face. He was mustered 
out and went back to America, but he returned to France in 
1917 and went into the artillery service. 

Robert Pellissier, a Harvard graduate, became a sergeant 



CHAPTER VIII 

JULY 4, 1915 

Several American journalists, "May their 
tribe increase!" among them Mr. Grundy, of 
the New York Sun ; Nabob Hedin, of the Brook- 
lyn Eagle; Mr. Mower, of the Chicago Daily 
News; Mr. Roberts, of the Associated Press, 
and Wythe Williams, of the New York Times, 
presented a petition to the Minister of War for 
the Americans to celebrate Independence Day 
in Paris. It was granted. The good news 
made a bigger noise on the front than the 

in Chasseur Alpins. He was killed on the Somme, August 
29, 1916. 

Henry Augustus Coit, a Harvard man, died of injuries 
received at the front, August 7, 1916. 

Robert L. Culbert, New York City, was killed in action 
in Belgium. 

Albert N. Depew, an American youth, wears his Veterans 
of Foreign Wars badge beside his Croix de Guerre. He has 
been a gunner and chief petty officer in the United States 
Navy, a member of the Foreign Legion, also captain of a 
gun turret on the French battleship Cassard. After his hon- 
orable discharge from the American navy, he entered French 
service, was transferred to the Legion, fought on the west 
front, and participated in the spectacular Gallipoli campaign, 
was captured on the steamship Georgic by the Moewe, a 
German commerce raider, and spent months of torture in a 

100 



JULY 4, 1915 loi 

heaviest bomb that ever fell. It did not seem 
possible, — too good to be true ! 

Previously, no one, French or foreigner, 
soldier or officer, had been allow^ed to leave his 
post. From then on, everyone received his 
regular furlough at stated intervals — more 
liberal as danger lessened. Nov\^ each man is 
granted ten days every four months. 

Evening of July 3rd, I was on guard in front 
of Fort Brimont, three kilometers from 
Rheims, w^hen Dubois put his head around a 
corner and yelled, ''Come on, wc are going to 
Paris." I paid no attention to him. I had not 
asked for a furlough, and, of course, did not 
expect any. 



German prison camp. He has written a book, "Gunner 
Depew"; and is at present on a speech-making tour of 
America. 

Demetire, St. Louis, Mo., soldier of the Legion, killed four 
Germans, — two with grenades, two with rifle, in an outpost 
engagement the night before the attack of April 17, 1917. 
Going over the top the following day, he was killed. 

Henry Beech Needham, American journalist, was killed 
near Paris, 1915, while making a trial flight with Lieutenant 
Warneford, who was the first man to, alone, bring down a 
Zeppelin machine. 

D. Parrish Starr, a Harvard graduate, was killed in action 
September 15, 1916. 

Andrew C. Champollion, New York, an American, painter 
by profession. Harvard graduate, a big game hunter, went to 
the front Alarch 1st, 1915. He was a descendant of the Cham- 



102 



SOLDIERS OF THE LEGION 




ilSitSs''^.^ 



JULY 4, 1915 103 

A few minutes later Dubois roared, ''Come 
on, you fool, don't you know enough to take a 
furlough when you can get one ? All Americans 
can go to Paris." When the corporal came 
around !■ asked to be relieved, went to the cap- 
tain and was told we had forty-eight hours per- 
mission; to pack up at once and go. 

We walked through the communication 
trenches to battalion headquarters among fall- 
ing shells. These made Dubois stop and say: 
''Damn it, it would just be my luck to get killed 
now; I would not mind if I were coming back 
from Paris, but if the Boche get me now I 
shall not be able to rest in my grave." 

At the battalion headquarters we were lined 
up in the darkness. An officer with a flashlight 

pollion, who deciphered the Rosetta Stone, and grandson of 
Austin Corbin. His ancestors had followed Napoleon's Eagles 
through Italy and Egypt; and this boy was killed by a bullet 
in the forehead at Bois le Pietre, March 23, 1915. In his last 
letter he wrote: — "Last night we slept in the second line 
trenches (not so bad), but today we are nose to nose with 
the enemy on the frontiest of fronts. It is the damnedest life 
imaginable. You are no longer treated like an irresponsible 
ass, but like a man, while you live the life of a beast or a 
savage." 

Guy Augustine, of San Francisco, son of the U. S. Consul 
to Barcelona, member of the Foreign Legion, was decorated 
with the Croix de Guerre for braverv at Chalons-Sur-Marne, 
July 14, 1917. 

Sylvain Rosenberg, New York, 23 years of age, son of 
Max Rosenberg, with the 19th Company of the 251st Regi- 



I04 SOLDIERS OF THE LEGION 

read off the names. Each man stepped out and 
received his furlough as his name was called. 
The officer stopped reading, Dubois still stood 
in line. Then he stepped up, saluted, and asked 
for his furlough. There was none. 



It was a dramatic moment. Sergeant 
Bouligny came out from the darkness, and a 
spirited argument occurred between him and 
the officer. The American sergeant then came 
over to Dubois and said : 'Tt's a damned shame. 
They held that five years (suspended sentence 
for sleeping, when lost by a patrol in 'No- 
Man's-Land') over you. Now, man to man, I 
want you to promise me you will go right back 
to your company. I told them you would. I 
stood good for you. The colonel must sign that 

ment, wounded on the Marne, September 7, 1914; — in Argonne, 
December 8, 1915, — cited in the Orders of the Day, — and 
killed March 15, 1916, at Verdun. 

The Lafayette Escadrille, No. 124, is an offspring of the 
Legion, formed by Rockwell, Curtis, Thaw, Hall, Back, Chap- 
man, Cowdin and Prince, who kept pounding the Colonel of 
the Legion on the back, so much that he gave his consent, to 
get rid of them. It has formed a nucleus of Ail-Americans 
that started that immense fleet of aeroplanes, — the eyes which 
find weak places in the enemy's line where the Allies march 
to victory. First Americans to carry their national flag into 
action as a fighting unit, April 11, 1917. Originally called the 
Franco-American Escadrille, but the name was changed to 
satisfy pro-Germans, who claimed to be Americans. These 
aviators did not change their emblem. The Red Indian sign 
is still on the machines. The old boys from the Legion are 



JULY 4, 1915 105 

furlough. He is not here and we can't do a 
thmg to help you." It was sad. The poor 
fellow was crushed. We walked away, leav- 
ing him in the darkness with his bitter thoughts. 

We arrived at Thill near midnight and were 
depositing our equipment at the guardhouse 
when a guard came and said to me: "The 
sentinel wishes to see you." I went out and 
there was old Tex Bondt! "Yes," he said, "I 
am sentinel tonight. Last night I was in 
prison. This is it, the prisoners are out work- 
ing. I drew eight days for trying to be reason- 
able. Reason is all right in its place, but not 
in the army. They nearly worked me to death. 
We were carrying timbers to the front line to 
make dugouts — three men to a stick. I was in 
the middle and I am six foot three!" 

Next morning Bouligny and I tried to find 
some breakfast. The town was deserted, 
badly shot-up. Stores were empty, civilians 
gone. Prospects looked bad, when a gunny- 
sack was drawn back from a doorway, and a 
voice yelled out, in English: "Here, where 



in the seat, and we hope to see every man an officer, dressed 
in the uniform of his own country. 



io6 SOLDIERS OF THE LEGION 

in the devil are you fellows going? Come up 
and have a cup of coffee/' It v^as Tony Pollet, 
of Corona, New York.''' 

In the early morning we walked fifteen kil- 
ometers to the railroad and waited for the other 
Americans to arrive. Capdevielle found some 
grease. Sweeney went to a French camp and 
talked some potatoes from them. So we ate 
''French fried," with wine, till the train started 
for Paris. 

Dr. Van Vorst was ranking officer, but 
Morlae and Sweeney sparred for ground. Said 
Morlae to Delpesche: ''You do that again and 
I will turn you over to the gendarmes." Del- 
pesche replied: "Who in hell are you? I am 
taking no orders from you. I belong to Ser- 
geant Sweeney's section!" 

Soubiron had the time of his life. He rode 
down on the foot-board of the coach. He was 

* In October, 1917, dressed in the French uniform, I was 
walking up the street near the Grand Central Station, New 
York. A civilian accosted me in French. We conversed in 
that language for some time. He worked the third degree, 
asked about Battalion D, and mentioned several names of 
men I knew. I turned on him and said, "You must have 
known Tony Pollet." The civilian stopped short, finally 
found his voice, and gasped, "Pollet? — that's me!" 



JULY 4, 1915 107 

determined not to miss the green fields, the 
lovely flowers and the smiles of the girls, as 
they wished the Americans ''Bon Voyage." 
Everything was beautiful after the drab and 
dirt of the front. 

On the platform at Paris the two sergeants 
were still disputing. A petite Parisienne 
stepped up to Sweeney, saying: "Pardon, 
Monsieur, you came from near Rheims; did 
you see anyone from the 97th Regiment on the 
train?" The 97th had been badly cut up. 
Sweeney remembered that. In an instant his 
face changed. He smiled back at the girl and 
answered: ''No, there were no French permis- 
sionaires; only Americans were on the train." 



Two days later each man was relating his 
experiences: 

The base-ball man from San Francisco: 

"Yes, I arrived in Paris without a sou. I saw 
you fellows scatter in all directions, and did not 
know what to do with myself. Two French 
ladies came along and invited me home with 
them. They paid all my expenses and gave me 



io8 SOLDIERS OF THE LEGION 

this five franc note and a sack of food to eat on 
my way back." 

Percy: ''That New York Sun man, Grundy, 
found five of us at the Cafe de la Paix. He 
ordered dinner. It cost him 120 francs. That 
was the best dinner I ever ate, but, Lord, I wish 
I had the money it cost!" 

Nelson: "Yes, my patron almost threw a 
fit when I blew in, but the best of the house 
was at my service, good bath, clean under- 
clothes — don't know where they came from, 
or whom they belonged to. But they insisted 
on my keeping them." 

Morlae: "Yes, I was up at the Embassy, 
saw Frazier and he told me ..." 

Bob Scanlon : "My friends were out of town 
but left word that I should have the best there 
was. So I went up to Place Pigalle and 
inquired for a girl I knew, Susie, and they 
fished out a man six foot high !" 

Dowd : "Yes, that Frenchman was splendid. 
When he learned we were Americans he invited 



JULY 4, 1915 109 

us to the banquet given by the American 
Chamber of Commerce at the Palais d'Arsay. 
There was just one table of us soldiers of the 
Legion and two long tables of men from the 
American Ambulance. The Frenchmen were 
glad to see us — the Ambulance men did not 
seem glad at all." 

" 'How is that/ said an American visitor, 
speaking to a well-dressed, manicured doctor, 
'are there many Americans in the Legion?' 

" T don't know.' 

'' 'Well, aren't there a good many of our boys 
there?' 

" 'There may be, but, of course, WE don't 
know them.' " 

Idaho Contractor: ''Yes, you fellows can 
talk about what you ate. When I got over to 
Place Clichy, it was 9 o'clock. Madame was 
closing up — all she had left was beans and 
vinegar. I had had no vinegar for ten months. 
Beans must be bad for the stomach. My appe- 
tite went wrong just the time I needed it most. 
I did not enjoy myself at all." 

Van Vorst: "Yes, I went over to Pickpus 
and saw the American Ambulance. They 



no SOLDIERS OF THE LEGION 

looked very nice and clean but did not rec- 
ognize the dirty soldiers from the Legion, but 
the French officers did." 

Bouligny: "I missed everything, did not 
know there was anything doing any place. 
Thought the 4th was on Sunday; didn't know 
they were holding 4th on the 5th." 

Narutz: "Yes, I had a bully time. Met 
some old friends at the American Express 
Company's office." 

Seeger: "I heard Sweeney was promoted to 
a lieutenancy." 

Capdevielle: "What do you think I am carry- 
ing this American flag for? Of course, I am 
going to use it." 

Delpesche: "What are all you fellows car- 
rying in those packages? You look like a lot 
of farmers who just received a consignment 
from Sears-Roebuck." 

King: "Yes, we bought this dollar stuff 
cheap, just 98 cents and freight." 



CHAPTER IX 

OUTPOST LIFE 

In front of Croane, where, in 1814, Frank and 
Hun fought for mastery, one hundred years 
later, the same nations again battled. 

The elaborate, naturally drained trench 
system of to-day was not. Instead of the 
horizon blue, the French soldier wore the old 
red pantaloons and dark blue coat. Occa- 
sionally new blue uniforms were sent to the 
front, which, wet a couple of times — the new 
dyes not holding — quickly became drab. Torn 
clothes, ripped crawling through barbed wire, 
were held together by finer wires. New York 
Heralds and Daily Mails wrapped around socks 
to help keep in the heat, warmed not alone 
the cockles of the heart! No smoking cook- 
kitchen, with steaming kettles filled with tasty 
food followed our ranks on march. Soup 
dishes and kettles were carried on knapsack, as 
in the days of Napoleon. At the end of a long 
march, at bivouac time, if the commissary had 

III 



112 SOLDIERS OF THE LEGION 

not made connection, weary soldiers threw their 
kettles away. If caught, eight days in prison, 
were welcome as relief. 

The Germans held Croane — the French and 
Germans, alternately, occupied the village of 
Croanelle, dominated by the fortress of Croane. 
This was before the days of the present heavy 
bombardment, and many of the deserted houses 
were still intact, beds unmade, dishes yet upon 
table, furnished, but vacant. Cattle, tied to 
mangers, lay dead in their stalls. In cellars, 
where combatants had tunneled through to 
connect, the dead of both sides lay impaled 
on bayonets. One Frenchman's teeth were at 
a German's throat, locked in combat, even in 
death. 

Out between the lines lay the unburied dead, 
in all shapes and conditions of rot, settled in 
the mud, half covered, in open shell holes. 
Dried fragments of uniforms flapped on barbed 
wire through which the wounded had crawled 
into sheltered corners and died. No need to tell 
a patrol when, in winter darkness, he stepped 
on a slippery substance, what it was — he knew. 
In the spring, grass grew 'round and through 



OUTPOST LIFE 113 



C^an:sl 9r|CBt of 0|» ^taattrmasttr'g Sspstttaml 

SepteciLer l-ltn, 



3 am dir»trii fcg tl;7 (^itBrtrrtnatPr-^fttrral of li[t Arm^ to fonmit^ bg »stetf rr •) mail. ^^ 
to % ai^sms gtoKa b^tow. a immzt n»]tai, nu^rri»a #llii4 . . wlftrl} mae aothartwJ* l^ 
% Art of d^ottgrKM s|t|inn»2k 3tmi 29. 1906. to far i^smitb to ti^onr mm of tta nolmdrrrB 
a^ »rtaln of J^» nsitlar troofia nf Iff? Arms of % p^ii{t}ttnfs ml(0 mm ntxtslUb mb mUaisit 
tar iS^ Mex loitl; i^pvia, anil toijo »n>r& b»san2> tlfr frrm of thftir rnliatmntts to itftp atiyprrae 
t^ Prili}!jrit» jteaorrprttoH. 

3n a tafalrsram itatHi Juig 1, JJSSS. to Enteral ($!io at iBantla. % |lrfsi&rut of tite 
Snittid ^atro rttniirtfrb tii; foUowiit^ n^nesiona of ^(itTciatiott for tiir miUtas^ mruift thua 

" ^tft ^ttt&tut itatxt» ta »ij»r»BB, \a Bfr laaat pnbUt maioif r. ^is ajjjirrflatiBn of tfat lofui 
jatrtoKsiti tiuaan bg H?r w)tente»ra m& r^tdwra «f Ifjr Sift Stmg tSarfs. tit jifrfnriaiiig wUitiitj 
orrtitrr tifrott^ warrr majsaigns tmit bti&ts tttifLituS tift tttsKr^nts In Eioaa. tabtu, nt^rr li)r 
tirm* df tt)rtr f nH«t>wtit>,. ti;»g twndili iisiu' brfn liitittrh ta itUtii^gr spat) ti^r rattfttatian uf tbr 
tr»atg wtti; 0j)a<tL 3i|Ui artttm tm ti;r^^|Bit so* naiito aofi itnait. 2t will s|ait& f«iH^ as an 
fxw^dr of ^ Brff-Barrtfirr a»d jaahltt tatiMirattoi aSfWi Ijaor raw {iiaradrftxrii % Awnritati 
■allHwr." •» 

"in rMognttisn ti^nrrvf 3 siptttt rnammrait ts Sa^rMs Uia) a spntal mcimi ot timtiir far 
giurti to Utr ttStrrni aad mUltorsiif fl^ Btl^Anag (Sdrpc »i^ tuffttngrd tb!« ^nit !>«ttr naintdsrUt) 
a«b rBtl}K«la«lwaUB for t^tr waatnJ."— SiUiion flt%1aUB. 

1«^ r»o}Wjrtfuf(g. 



IBaior anj& ^tsaxUt^iwittt. 11. *. Anmi. 



l$aisr of SitiMrr Jclia.Sos,©, 

fort ©f&ct A^rf» Cftaljyj L'iRii. 



CONGRESSIONAL MEDAL CERTIFICATE 



114 



SOLDIERS OF THE LEGION 



those inanimate shapes. Rats and dogs waxed 
fat. 



From the day the 2nd Regiment went into 
Croanelle till it was relieved, six months later, 
no German soldier who set foot in the shallow 
trench went back. Our 
regiment, repeatedly re- 
inforced, was kept at full 
strength. 



Americans there en- 
dured pain and suffer- 
ing, the depth of which 
Washington's Army at 
Valley Forge never 
reached. Those old Con- 
tinentals had nothing in 
discomfort on these 
modern heroes in front 
of Croane. Washing- 
ton's Army, in their own 
country, had access to 
the necessities of life. 
They held communion 
with their fellows. These 
later-day Americans, un- 




UNITED STATES CON- 
GRESSIONAL MEDAL 

(Reverse side reads) 

FOR 

PATRIOTISM 

FORTITUDE 

AND 

LOYALTY 



OUTPOST LIFE 115 

der the hardest discipHne in the world, were cut 
off from civilization. They were back to the 
age of barter and exchange. Money would not 
buy goods — there was nothing to be bought — 
but if one man had a little tobacco, and another 
a pair of socks, they would swap. 

No furloughs were granted the first ten 
months. Every letter was censored. Packages 
of comforts, sent by friends, were stolen or con- 
fiscated en route. They were in a foreign coun- 
try, whose language many could not speak. 
They had left good, comfortable homes for 
these holes in the ground, called trenches by 
courtesy, where one waded to his post on guard, 
rifle in hand, and carried a wisp of straw or a 
piece of plank on which to lie to keep from 
sinking into slime and slush, which covered his 
clothes with mud and filled his bones with 
rheumatism. 



It was near midnight, the relief was in the 
basement of a shot-up chateau. The guard, on 
a scaffold, peering through loopholes made in 
a stone wall, was watching Rockwell sentinel 
at the advance outpost and alongside. They 



ii6 SOLDIERS OF THE LEGION 

saw him stop, heard a familiar sound (the strik- 
ing of a grenade cap), but it was in the rear. 
Suddenly Rockwell yelled, ''Aux Amies." Met- 
teger, the burly Alsatian corporal, ran out, just 
in time to catch the explosion of a German 
grenade, and was killed. Rockwell, standing 
between the grenade and the corporal, was so 
thin the charge missed him and lodged in the 
fat man. Simultaneously, the guard at the wall 
heard a rush, a noise, a rattle of musketry from 
behind, and turned about face. The relief 
rushed out of the basement. The Germans, 
caught between two fires, cursing, disappeared 
into the darkness. 

When the guard turned to repel the attack- 
ers, they jumped from the scaffold to the 
ground. Capdevielle's hair was singed by a 
bullet, a ball went through Soubiron's cartridge 
belt. When Brooks, the cockney Englishman, 
jumped, another Englishman, Buchanan, fell 
on him, pushed his face into the ground and 
filled his mouth with mud. Brooks struck out 
and hit Buchanan, who tried to get away to 
chase the Boche. "You blankety, blank, blank." 
Biff Ibifif! biff! "You will, will you?" The two 
Englishmen were still fighting when the guard 



OUTPOST LIFE 117 

came back. Buchanan had discovered that 
some one had made his gun unworkable, tramp- 
ing mud into the magazine. He stopped and 
had it out with Brooks. 



It was at La Fontenelle and Ban de Sept, La 
Viola and Viola Nord, opposite St. Marie aux 
Mines, in reconquered Alsace, among the 
V^osges on the Franco-German frontier. Seven 
long, weary months we spent among those per- 
pendicular mountains, with sunburned base 
and snowy, dripping tops. Dog trains carried 
provisions in winter. Pack mules clambered in 
summer, wearing breeching to keep from slip- 
ping down hill. 

The continuous snows of winter, and the 
ceaseless flow of water down the middle of the 
trench in summer, while it also dripped from 
the roof of the dugout, and seeped up from the 
ground below, dampened both clothes and 
spirits, as we carried wet blankets and our 
misery, up among the clouds of mist, in drizzle, 
sleet, snow and the intense cold. A sieve is a 
water-tight compartment compared to those 
shot-up dugouts. 



ii8 SOLDIERS OF THE LEGION 

The constant bombardment often changed so 
completely the topography of the mountains, 
one could hardly be sure when daylight came 
that he was the same man, or in the same place. 

We were beyond civilization. Not a flower, a 
garden, a cow, a chicken, a house with a door or 
window, or roof, not a civilian or a woman was 
to be seen. All work or fight, no recreation, it 
was a long, continued suffering. We had the 
Boche part of the time, bad weather ever. 

The trenches were so close together we 
fought with grenades instead of rifles. The 
wire in front, thrown out loose from the trench 
behind, was all shot up. The trench itself from 
continued bombardment was thirty or forty 
feet across the top, with just a narrow path 
down the middle, where one walked below the 
ground level. The hills were a wilderness of 
craters, blown out trenches with unexploded 
shells about. 

Crosses leaning over dead men's graves, 
were littered with ragged, empty sandbags, 
while pieces of splintered timber, tangled wire, 
mingled with broken boulders and lacerated 



OUTPOST LIFE 119 

tree trunks of all lengths and thickness. Holes 
grew now where trees had stood. Roots and 
stumps, upturned, replaced splintered branches 
and scorched, withered leaves. A few strag- 
gling, upright trunks, eighty to one hundred 
feet in the air, were festooned with sections of 
blown-up barbed wire. 

The towns belonged to the dead, wholly de- 
serted by civilians, with even the old women 
gone. Roofless, doorless, windowless ruins, 
twisted iron girders and fantastically broken 
walls, stood out against the sky, grimly elo- 
quent, though silent, monuments of kultur. 



It was the day after Roumania declared war 
on the Central Powers — the French Govern- 
ment had that information printed in German 
in pamphlet form to throw into the enemy's 
trenches — I was on guard at a shot-up out- 
post near La Viola, fifteen yards from the 
German trench. The sheet-iron shelter over- 
head which was supposed to keep out the rain 
was perforated by shrapnel and ripped by high 
explosives. At a noise above, a glance over- 
head revealed the leg of an animal which, under 



120 SOLDIERS OF THE LEGION 

ordinary circumstances, should have been a rat, 
but was not — too much fur. That leg was mov- 
ing, so I reached up and pulled down a beautiful 
long-haired angora cat, with a yellow ribbon 
about her neck, on which were printed German 
letters. Deporte exclaimed, ''Une belle agent 
de liason !'' So we tied those pamphlets with 
the yellow ribbon about pussy's neck and drove 
her back to the land of kultur. 

Next morning a German shouted over, in 
excellent French, ''Hello, Frenchmen, have you 
any newspapers?" and Sergeant Dorme replied, 
''Wait a minute,'' then picked up a grenade and 
threw it into the German trench. The German 
may have heard the grenade cap strike, for he 
dodged the explosion and yelled back, "Merci, 
monsieur!" (Thank you, sir!) 

A short time afterward the Boche artillery 
opened up. Our outpost was about twenty 
yards in front of our main trench — that part 
behind and east of us was badly battered up — 
but west, it was completely demolished. A few 
of the survivors got into deep saps, while odd 
stragglers crawled, bobbed, or ducked along the 
trench line till, seeing our outpost, they came 



OUTPOST LIFE 121 

down for companionship. Instead of two men 
we had eight when the cannonading suddenly 
ceased. I was at the observation hole and saw 
some Germans start to climb out of their trench. 
That same instant a shower of French grenades 
dropped all about them — we saw them no more. 

I backed out of the observation hole, a bad 
place to be caught. The Frenchmen were 
throwing grenades for keeps — no slackers 
there, no run-aways. Once in a while a fellow 
stopped for an instant, took a swift look at his 
comrade, then went at it again. I was supposed 
to have the only observation hole. The others 
were below the ground level, yet they seemed 
to know where and when to throw. I decided 
they were guided not by orders but by instinct. 
I walked back to the main trench, to another 
surprise. Out among that row of craters was 
the whole company. How did they get there? 
Peraud patiently and quietly explained, as 
though we were sitting in a parlor instead of 
under a hail of German shells, that it was the 
orders of the captain — that the Germans had 
failed to break through at our outpost, that they 
had gone in at the next where the soldiers were 
all killed, that the Germans had run along- the 



122 SOLDIERS OF THE LEGION 

ruined trench west, and found five men in saps, 
that two had escaped when the French drove 
the Germans back to the trenches, and that our 
company was waiting for the counter attack. 

That night, territorial companies came up 
from the rear — re-dug the trenches. The bom- 
bardment kept up many days — the trenches 
being dug and re-dug many times, till finally 
the French got the chance they wanted, the 
raiding, or free, section slipped over, and cap- 
tured twice as many prisoners as the Germans 
had. The French were satisfied — and the Ger- 
mans had to be! 

Face to face with death, what is in a man 
comes out. T shall never forget one, who, right 
name unknown, came from Marseilles. We 
used to call him "Coquin de Dieu." He had 
some system whereby he got extra wine — even 
at the front. That additional cup or two was 
just enough to make him happy and start him 
singing. Handsome as a woman, he looked the 
careless, reckless ne'er-do-well. During a ter- 
rific bombardment, I was sent to relieve him, 
out between two German outposts, one eight, 
the other fifteen yards away. Instead of going 



OUTPOST LIFE 123 

to the safety of the sap in the rear, that French- 
man insisted on staying with me. Germans 
broke into the French trench at the adjoining 
post, and went to the right. Had they come 
left, we should have been the first victims. 

There was little Maurice, just twenty, who 
had been through the whole campaign. When 
dodging shells, he could drop quicker than a 
flapper and come up laughing every time. 

Maribeau, eighteen, only a boy, always 
objected to throwing grenades. ''No, I won't — 
I promised my mother and my father I would 
not become a grenadier and I won't." One 
night during a Boche grenade attack, he and 
everyone else had to work for self-preservation. 
He liked it and became a splendid bomb 
thrower. 

Renaud, an old 170th boy, was with him and 
Marti, on post, during a Boche bombardment 
and attack. Marti was killed by a grenade. 
A crapouillot fell into the trench behind. I 
was pretty busy throwing grenades, but caught 
a glimpse of a stray sergeant pulling Renaud 
under cover. Several days later, noticing a 
haversack hanging on the side of the trench, 



124 SOLDIERS OF THE LEGION 

r wondered why it was there so long, also 
whose it might be. Inside was a piece of bread 
and a flat tin plate perforated by shell and 
splinters. Scribbled on the plate was the name, 
"Renaud." 

Big, strong, impulsive, was my marching 
companion, Peraud. He loved his wife and 
hated war. When thinking about war his face 
had so deadly an expression, no one dared dis- 
turb him. When his thought was of his wife, 
he looked a glorified choir boy. Once in Lor- 
raine, during repose, he and his companion, 
Perora, a theological student, invited me to a 
church to hear the cure lecture on Jeanne 
d'Arc. While the student and the cure con- 
versed, Peraud rang the bell which brought the 
soldier congregation. 

Marching behind him, Indian file, through 
the trenches one dark night, I missed the barrel 
of his rifle against the sky line, and stopped 
just in time to prevent falling on top of Peraud, 
who had stumbled into a sap filled with the 
slush and slime that run from the trench bot- 
toms. It wasn't necessary to watch the rifle 
after that. I could follow by the smell. 



OUTPOST LIFE 125 

It was in the trenches I first met him. Boche 
bombardment had knocked out the wooden 
posts that braced the sides of the trench. Dirt 
had fallen in and dammed the running water. 
We were detailed to walk, knee deep, into the 
horrible slush, and bring those dirty, dripping- 
posts, on our shoulders, to dry land. Suddenly 
he stopped, took a look and asked: 

"Comrade, what was your business in civil 
life?" 

"I was engaged in commerce. And you?" 

"Me? I am an artist." 



Our sergeant spoke a little English. He was 
a good sort, who, owning a garage in civil life, 
had met many Americans and thought they 
were decent enough to invite acquaintance. One 
afternoon, during a bombardment, he, Peraud, 
Perora, Rolfe and Tardy were in a sap. Too 
careless to go below, they stood on the top step, 
in the doorway, sheltered from behind and on 
both sides. There was just the four-foot square 
opening in front. A shell dropped into that 
opening, killed four, and left Tardy standing- 
alone. He was a brave soldier before, but no 
good after that. 



126 SOLDIERS OF THE LEGION 

Peraud and Perora had been bosom friends. 
They came from the same neighborhood, were 
wounded and sent to the same hospital, both 
changed into the 163rd Regiment, Together 
they were killed by the same shell. 

Comrade Deporte was an old 170th man. 
Names, being indexed alphabetically, always, 
at the end of a long march, Bowe and Deporte 
were put on guard, with no chance to cool off 
after packing the heavy sacks up the moun- 
tain side. Our cotton shirts, soaked with per- 
spiration, felt like boards as our bodies rapidly 
cooled during the silent, motionless guard. 

Deporte was a revelation in human nature. 
Unselfish, he did the most arduous and often 
unnecessary work without a murmur. We 
were always together on guard and frequently 
drew the bad places. Once, during a five-hour 
bombardment, isolated, impossible to get relief 
to us, he did not complain. Another time, hear- 
ing a suspicious noise in front, I threw a gre- 
nade. We got such an avalanche in return it 
almost took our breath away — and Deporte 
laughed! Home on furlough, he overstayed 
his leave five days and drew sixty days prison. 
He smiled — it was sixty days on paper! 



OUTPOST LIFE 127 

One fine day we two were taken out in front 
during a bombardment. Captain Anglelli, with 
two holes in his helmet where a sniper's bullet 
went in and out at Verdun, explained the situa- 
tion to Deporte: 

''You have the grenades?'' 

"Oui, mon capitaine." 

"You see this hill?" 

"Oui, mon capitaine." 

"It is higher than that trench." 

"Oui, mon capitaine." 

"You can throw into there?" 

"Oui, mon capitaine." 

"The Boche will come through there." 

"Oui, mon capitaine." 

"You can hit him, he cannot reach you." 

"Oui, mon capitaine." 

"The American will stay with you?" 

"Oui, mon capitaine." 

"Bombhellout of them!" 

"Oui, mon capitaine." 

"Hold them there and we will bag them." 

"Oui, mon capitaine." 

Smiling, the captain patted Deporte on the 
shoulder. Deporte, looking squarely into his 
eyes, grinned back. They understood each 



128 SOLDIERS OF THE LEGION 

Other, those two. It was not superior ordering 
inferior. It was man to man. 

I should like to tell all that happened that 
afternoon. It was the wind-up of a week's 
bombardment, and we had a ripping time dodg- 
ing about to avoid being maimed for life. We 
held a mountain top on the frontier. The Ger- 
mans had the peaks opposite, where they had 
planted their heavy artillery. When the French 
drove back the invading Germans, the lines 
stopped within bombing distance — about thirty 
yards. We had the upper line, they the lower. 
We could throw grenades on them, but it was 
hard for them to reach us. So they planted 
their line with trench-mortars that throw 
aerial torpedoes, crapouillots and bombs the 
size of a stovepipe, also others which resemble 
a two-gallon demijohn. They came slow. We 
could see them — the wide-nosed torpedoes 
coming direct, the stovepipes hurtling end 
over end. 

These visible shells are only good for short 
range. We dodged them, but they kept us 
constantly on the move. The captain's trench 
was flattened out — no need to watch that any 



OUTPOST LIFE 129 

more. The bombardment increased. Long 
range artillery from the mountains joined the 
short range mortars. The black smoke and 
noise from the Jack Johnsons and the yellow 
smoke from bursting shrapnel did not attract 
our attention from those three-finned torpedoes 
and hurtling crapouillots. 

We would dodge for one but a half dozen 
might drop before we could look around. 
Deporte was buried by one explosion. I had 
to pull him out of the dirt. A big rock came 
flying down the trench, then a piece of timber 
four feet long. Two pieces of metal fell on my 
helmet which I picked up and have yet. They 
were burning hot, not iron or steel, but copper 
and nickel. 

At a shout in front, we grabbed grenades and 
saw to the left a crowd of men running toward 
our lines, French and German. Later we 
learned how eighteen Frenchmen went over to 
the German blockhouse across the way, gave 
the forty occupants a chance to surrender, of 
which eleven took advantage. Revolvers and 
bombs finished the others. Two Frenchmen, 
both my friends, were wounded. 



130 SOLDIERS OF THE LEGION 

The Germans did not seem to like it. They 
got more angry and threw all kinds of metal 
at our dodging heads. An orderly rushed 
around the corner and yelled: ''Fall back, 
orders from the capitaine." He scurried away. 
We found a sap. I was thirty feet down when 
I looked up and saw Deporte standing at the 
opening unbuttoning his vest. Steam and 
perspiration formed a circle around him, such 
as is seen about an aeroplane flying high 
against the sun. About thirty feet down into 
that sap the steps turned a right angle, then 
again changed direction. We sat beyond the 
second turning, lighting a candle as fast as the 
inrush of air, made by the bursting shells, blew 
it out. A couple of hours later, when we looked 
for the hill we had held, it was gone. Immense 
craters yawned where had been our regular 
trenches. The rows of trenches were as waves 
of an angry sea, while the ground between was 
pitted and scarred beyond recognition. 



CHAPTER X 

CHAMPAGNE ATTACK 

The night before the attack of September 25, 
1915, Bouligny and I went over to Battalion C. 
He picked up a piece of cheese that Morlae had. 
Munching away, he demanded, "Where did you 
get this?'' 

"In Suippe." 

"I thought we were forbidden to go out." 

"We are." 

"How did you get by?" 

"I told the sentry I did not speak French, 
showed him my old Fourth of July pass, and 
walked through." 

Bouligny said: "Well, we will eat this 
cheese so they'll have no evidence against you." 

Morlae replied: "We shall need somebody 
to help carry the load we have stacked up." 

"What have we got?" inquired Casey. 

"Two canteens of wine instead of one." 

''Good," said Casey. 

"And 250 rounds of cartridges instead of 
120," called Nelson. 

131 



132 SOLDIERS OF THE LEGION 

"And a steel helmet, instead of a cloth cap," 
from Dowd. 

''And four days' reserve of food instead of 
two/' added King. 

"And a new knife for the nettoyers" (mop- 
pers-up), put in Scanlon. 

"And a square white patch of cloth sewed on 
our backs, so our own artillerymen can recog- 
nize and not blow us up," finished John Laurent. 

"I'd rather be here, leaning against this tree," 
said Chatcoff, "than in little old New York, 
backed against a telephone pole, trying to push 
it into the North River." 

"Yes," agreed Seeger, "this is the life. The 
only life worth living is when you are face to 
face with death — midway between this world 
and the next." 



For one week the Legion had marched each 
night fifteen kilometers to the front, dug 
trenches and returned to camp in the early 
morning. Again that night we went out, and 
daylight, September 25, found us estab- 
Hshed in a badly demoHshed trench from 



CHAMPAGNE ATTACK 133 

which we emerged at the time set for the 
attack, 9:15. 

The four hours between daylight and the 
attack were passed under a furious bombard- 
ment. Many were killed or wounded while we 
waited to go over the top. 

The French had, unknown to the Germans, 
brought up their 75 cannon and dug them down 
in another trench 25 yards behind us. The din 
was terrific. Smoke screens and gas shells 
nearly blinded us. Men were uneasy and 
dodged. The captain caught a fellow flopping. 
''Here, you young whelp, don't you know that 
noise comes from our own guns behind?" 

Pera, a Tunis Jew, tore open his first aid 
bandage and we filled our ears with cotton to 
deaden the noise. 

The attack was carried out by seven long 
lines of soldiers advancing two yards apart, 
each line about 100 yards behind the other. 

The Colonials and Moroccans had the first 
line, the Legion the second. Owing to the 



134 SOLDIERS OF THE LEGION 

Germans' concentrated fire on our trenches and 
on the outlets, each man did not get out two 
yards from the next. Frequently the other 
man was dead or wounded. But the objective 
was the Ferme Navarin, and at 10:30 it was in 
our possession. 



A soldier's life, while of some concern to him- 
self, to an officer is but a means to an end. It 
is offered, or given, to get results. The best 
officer obtains the most results with the least 
loss. Some give wrong orders and sacrifice 
their men. Others seem to grasp every open- 
ing for advancement and gain the objective 
with very little loss. 

In the first run to the outlet the slaughter 
was terrible. Stretcher bearers carried a con- 
tinuous stream of wounded with bloody band- 
ages on, silent, motionless, pale-faced, dirtily- 
clothed men, whose muddy shoes extended 
over the edge of the stretchers. 

Nearer the front line, the worse the carnage. 
Dead were lying so thick soldiers walked on 
upturned faces grazed by hob-nailed shoes. 



CHAMPAGNE ATTACK 135 

Side trenches were filled with wounded, wait- 
ing transportation. Some, injured in the hand, 
held it up watching the blood flow; others, hurt 
in the leg, were dragging that member along. 
Holding onto their stomachs were those whose 
blood was running down over their shoes. At 
one corner leaning against two corpses lay a 
young soldier, smooth shaven, curly-hair, mus- 
tache trimmed, his face settling into the 
soft, creamy whiteness of death, a smile on 
his lips. 

My mind flashed over to Madam Tussaud's 
wax figure exhibition in London. 

Two Moroccans stopped. One pulled off his 
vest and found a blackish red bruise on his 
chest. His comrade said: ''It is nothing, come 
along." The other fell over, dead. A Zouave, 
with back broken, or something, unable to get 
up, eyes rolling into his head, twisted his body 
in agony. The doctor, walking away, said: 
"No chance. Leave him; blood poison." 

The Germans had a sure range on the outlet. 
Wounded men, walking back in the trench, 
were jostled and knocked about by strong, run- 



136 SOLDIERS OF THE LEGION 

ning men, forcing themselves to the front. 
Shells were falling all around as we ran into 
"No-Man's-Land." Machine guns were out on 
the slope, ''rat-tat-tat-tat," a continuous noise. 
Men lying behind guns, rifle shooting, working, 
cursing, digging trenches, throwing dirt, mak- 
ing holes. 

At every corner stood calm, square-faced, 
observing officers directing, demanding, com- 
pelling. What are such men in civil life? Why 
do we never see them? 

In the open, I stopped and took a quick look 
around. The only man I knew was Crotti, an 
Italian. He spoke in English: "Where is the 
Legion?" The officer overheard. His face 
changed. He did not like that alien tongue just 
then, but understood, and smiling, said: "The 
Legion is there." 

They were crawling up a shallow trench, 
newly made in open ground, at an angle of 45 
degrees from us. We did not try to force our 
way back into the trench against that crowd, 
so kept out on top and joined our comrades, 
who laughed when they saw us running in from 
where the Boche was supposed to be. 



CHAMPAGNE ATTACK 137 

The man alongside puts on his bayonet as 
the order is passed down the line to go over on 
command. The officers snap out: 'Tive min- 
utes, three minutes, one minute, En Avant!'' 
The Colonials, the Moroccans and the Legion- 
naires, all mixed up, arrive about the same time. 
Up, and over the Boche line trench. Where is 
the wire? It has been blown away by artil- 
lery. Instead of deep, open trenches, we find 
them covered over! Swarming, we go up on 
top the covered trenches then turn and throw 
bombs in at the port-holes from which the Ger- 
mans are shooting. Boches run out at the 
entrances, climb from the dugouts, hands in air, 
crying, ''Kamerad." 

More grenades inside and more German 
prisoners. The first line men keep going. Ger- 
man dead lie all about. German equipment is 
piled around; we pass the wounded, meet the 
living enemy. A running Zouave stops a 
Boche, who goes down with the Zouave's 
bayonet in his chest. The Zouave puts his foot 
on the man, pulls out the bayonet, and keeps on 
his headlong rush. 

An old, grey-haired Poilu met a Boche in 
square combat, bayonet to bayonet. The old 



138 SOLDIERS OF THE LEGION 

man (his bayonet had broken) got inside the 
other's guard, forced him to the ground, and 
was choking him to death when another 
Frenchman, helping his comrade, pushed the 
old man aside in order to get a sure welt at the 
Boche. The old man, quick as a cat, jumped up. 
He thought another German was after him and 
recognized his comrade. The German sat up 
and stuck up his hands. The Frenchmen 
looked foolish — it would be murder! Half a 
dozen Germans just then came from a dugout. 
That old man took his rifle with the twisted, 
broken bayonet, picked up a couple of German 
casques, and, lining the prisoners up, took them 
to the rear. Prisoners all about. One big Ger- 
man officer surrendered with a machine gun 
crew who carried their own gun. Unwounded 
prisoners lugged their wounded comrades on 
their backs while others limped along, leaning 
on companions. Many had broken, bruised 
heads. Prisoners bore French wounded on 
stretchers. The dead lay in all directions, rid- 
dled, peppered by the 75s, mangled with high 
explosives, faces dried-blood, blackened. 

Behind the first line, into the newly-made 
communication trenches, I noticed where dirt 



CHAMPAGNE ATTACK 139 

had been thrown to the bottom of the trench, 
walking on dead Germans' grazed faces, bris- 
tling whiskers, partially covered with loose dirt, 
so that their bodies were not noticed by com- 
rades going to the front. Continued bombard- 
ment, more dead. Germans running, equip- 
ment strewn everywhere, black bread, cigars, 
many casques, more dead, broken caissons, 
dead horses, cannon deserted — their crews 
killed, Boche shells in lots of three lying about 
in wicker baskets. Trenches full of dead, legs, 
arms and heads sticking out. 

We followed the Germans into a maze of gas 
and my eyes and lungs got full. Then I felt 
weak and comfortable. The Luxemburg cor- 
poral came along and pulled me out. Dropping 
behind, we finally came upon the Legion, wait- 
in a communication trench to flank the Ger- 
mans. A wonderful Legionnaire, with the face 
of a Greek god (shot in the stomach), came 
hobbling along on a stick. He sat down and 
renewed an acquaintance with the corporal 
which had been started at Toulouse. 

Over the top again. A backward glimpse 
showed the wounded man hobbling behind us. 



140 SOLDIERS OF THE LEGION 

back again to the front. I noticed the Legion- 
naires running, chins forward, bayonets fixed, 
greatly bunched, and thought the Germans 
could not miss hitting so many men. So, 
being the last man in the company, I kept run- 
ning along the outside. The corporal was 
killed going over. He fell into a shell hole 
among a lot of German wounded and dead. 
We were ordered to turn to the right, down this 
trench. I, the last man, became first. 

Blinded with gas, I blundered along, bayonet 
fixed, finger on trigger, stumbling over dead 
and wounded Germans, bumping into sharp 
corners of the trench, on into another gas maze, 
and across the second line trench. Someone 
pulled my coat from behind and I discovered 
that our men were going down that cross 
trench. So I fell in about the middle of the 
company, pumped the gas from my stomach, 
and by the time I was in shape again orders 
came that we should hold this trench, which 
had gradually filled with our men. 

It had rained all day. Racing through the 
trenches, dirt fell into the magazines of our 
rifles. It makes one furiously angry when the 



CHAMPAGNE ATTACK 141 

magazine will not work. I grabbed a rifle lying 
alongside a man I thought dead. He was 
very much awake. He quite insisted on using 
his own gun. The next man was dead. He had 
a new rifle. I felt much better. 

It was impossible to stay in that crowded 
trench. I found a large shell hole in the open, 
eight feet deep, with water in the bottom. With 
shovel and pick, I dug out enough on the side 
of the crater to find dry ground and tried to 
sleep. I was awakened by officers who wished 
to make me go into the trenches. I did not un- 
derstand French. Those officers insisted I did. 
Of course, I did not. I knew they wanted the 
nice, comfortable place I had constructed for 
themselves. So, paid no attention, but covered 
up my head and tried to sleep. I could not. 
Then remembered something — 1 had eaten no 
food for twenty-four hours. So soaked hard 
tack in the water at the bottom of the shell 
hole, dined, and then went to sleep in spite of 
the rain, the bombardment, and the homeless 
officers. 

Next day we made another attack over the 
top. We got into a Boche machine gun cross- 



142 SOLDIERS OF THE LEGION 

fire and orders were to dig down. I noticed a 
large shell crater about 20 yards to the left, 
where a half dozen Poilus were lying in comfort 
below the earth level and fairly safe. Crawling 
toward them on my stomach, with nose on 
the ground, I felt the earth shake (impossible 
to hear in the never-ending cannon roar), 
looked up, and about 80 or 100 feet in the air, 
where they had rested as on a teeter after going 
up, before coming down, — I saw a number of 
blue overcoats. I looked over to the shell crater 
and found it was larger, fresher and empty. I 
crawled over there and stayed till darkness 
relieved me. 

Those men were in comparative safety, while 
I was out in the open and exposed, yet they 
were killed. Soldiers naturally become fatal- 
ists, and believe one will not be called till 
the shell comes along with his number. 
They see a shell fall, a cloud of dirt and dust 
goes up — no damage done. Another shell 
drops, — a man stood there, — he goes up, — he 
was in the wrong place, at the wrong time, — 
and out of luck. Why worry? There are too 
many shells, and the one that gets you is the 
one you will never see. If it does not get you 



CHAMPAGNE ATTACK 143 

right then it is no time to worry, — if it does, 
you won't need to. 



On September 28, the Legion attacked the 
Bois Sabot or wooden shoe, a wooded eminence 
protected by fifty yards of barbed wire entan- 
glements, stretched, tree to tree, behind which 
bristled three rows of machine guns. About 
four o'clock, the Legion lined out to attack in 
a long row, a yard apart. The Germans watched 
our formation, their guns trained on the first 
wire, and waited. 

Finally, the Colonel said to a Sergeant, 
''Here, you take this section. Go over and 
wake them up." No one was anxious. The 
rifles of the Boche could be seen above their 
trenches. But Musgrave said, ''Let's go over 
and stir them and see what kind of a show 
they put up." The section went, 35 or 40 men. 
Just two, both Americans, Musgrave and Pa- 
velka, came back. 

That attack lasted all night. Daybreak was 
coming. All the ofificers had been killed, ex- 
cept a little squeaky voiced Lieutenant. He was 



144 SOLDIERS OF THE LEGION 

afraid to give the order to retreat. But, day- 
light in sight, he finally said, "Gather up the 
wounded and go back to the trench we left." 
The dead were in rows by hundreds, as thick 
as autumn leaves, each man on his stomach, face 
to the foe. 

Artillery was then brought up. Two days 
later, we again attacked. The wire and the 
whole mountain top had been blown away. The 
Germans we met were either dead, wounded 
or dazed. 

It was the seventeenth day of the attack. We 
lay to the left of the Ferme Navarin in front of 
the captured German second line trenches. 
German officers' dug-outs were littered with 
champagne bottles stolen from the cellars of 
France. On the other hand, Zouaves and 
Legionnaires were decorated with captured 
German helmets, swords, gold-braided coats, 
map cases, boots and equipment of all sorts. 

In that district the terrain is streaked — first, 
strips of open ground, then strips of woodland, 
which had evidently been planted for a military 
purpose. 



CHAMPAGNE ATTACK 145 

The Germans were on one side of a hill, we 
were close up on the other, so close that the 
German shells could not drop quickly enough 
and invariably exploded in the rear. 



There was no wire between. The trees on 
the hill-top were mostly shot away. A broken 
ladder was still tied to a tall tree which had been 
used as an observation post. Snipers from both 
sides, in trees, were picking off every man who 
went into the open. 



Here, the attacking parties had been stopped. 
In the open, between the woods, dead French- 
men still lay in rows, side by side, face to the 
foe, where they had been mowed down by ma- 
chine guns, lying behind their knapsacks, in 
front of which a little dirt had been thrown. 
Some had rifles in their hands, others spades. 
The camp kettles, strapped to their knapsacks, 
were perforated by bullets. At one side of the 
opening, dead men had been placed crossways 
in front of a shallow trench toes upward, then 
a layer of bodies lengthways, cordwood style, 
then others, toes up, then bodies lengthways; 
and in front dirt was thrown. 



146 SOLDIERS OF THE LEGION 

Behind this barricade the bodies of wounded 
men lay, not straight, but in almost every im- 
aginable position, blood-blackened faces, dirty 
bloody bandages, muddy shoes, staring eyes, 
twisted limbs, — all mixed together. 

I was out in front of this line of bodies, on 
picket, lying in the underbrush, when Emery, 
the Swiss corporal of the adjoining platoon, 
crawled over and began telling me about his 
English sweetheart and English homes and 
hospitality and Cambridge days, when the cap- 
tain, noticing we had our backs to the enemy, 
bawled us out. 

So, to make up for our slackness we crawled 
a little further, where we noticed something 
black between us and the hill-top. Emery was 
called away just then. I crawled out and found 
it was the body of a French officer wrapped up 
entirely in a large black raincoat. He died as 
the French officer wishes to die, at the head of 
his men; and this one was 100 yards ahead of 
the nearest soldier. 

Being in bad odor with my captain, I did not 
report to him. The sergeant, Bacarret, an 



CHAMPAGNE ATTACK 147 

Alsatian with German manners, I never ad- 
dressed unless compelled to by military neces- 
sity. So I told the Parisian bootblack corporal 
what I had seen. 

Going on picket again, the corporal and the 
retiring sentinel dragged the body down the 
hill and I watched him as he artistically frisked 
it. First, he deftly transferred a roll of bills 
from the dead man's vest to his own, then took 
his purse, knife, maps, letters, etc., and, open- 
ing the purse, he said, ''Look what he had, I am 
going to take this money to the captain." There 
was one five franc piece, also some small 
change. The letters he left on the ground. I 
picked them up and read the contents, which 
showed they were from his wife, written from 
his home at Rheims. 

Coming off picket, we were ordered to change 
positions. We marched all night. Our feet 
through not having shoes off for seventeen 
days, at first numb, soon burned and pricked as 
the blood commenced to circulate. Many men 
fell out of ranks. Those who did not were so 
tired and used up they did not fill up the sets of 
fours as their comrades dropped out. 



148 SOLDIERS OF THE LEGION 

I was in the rear rank of the first set of fours 
and marched behind the bootblack corporal. 
He was a gritty little fellow and carried a knap- 
sack so large that his head could not be seen 
from behind. He fell out several times, but 
pushed himself up in spite of the men, who 
would not budge or get out of the way, — for 
every step counts in a long march. 

Walking on a canal bank, I noticed some- 
thing dangling about his legs — saw it was the 
dead officer's raincoat hanging from his belt. I 
waited till he came, pushing his way past again, 
when I made a false step and he landed, face 
down, knapsack and all, in the canal. He did 
not show up again till the following afternoon. 



CHAPTER XI 

LIFE IN DEATH 

"If a man die, shall he live?"* Aye — and that 
more abundantly! 

Realize and believe v^ith Victor Hugo, 
"When I go dov^n to the grave I can say like 
many others, 'I have finished my day's v^ork/ 
But I cannot say 'I have finished my life/ My 
day's v^ork v^ill begin again next morning. 
The tomb is not a blind alley; it is a thorough- 
fare. It closes on the tv^ilight, it opens on the 
dawn." 

They do not die v^ho instil in others love of 
country and higher degrees of patriotism. 

We know that "except a corn of wheat fall 
into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but, 
if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit. "f Nature 
is constantly demonstrating Life as the mani- 
festation of Death. Nature's laws are the laws 
of God, to whom are all people subject. So, 
with man, is passing his progress, into a higher, 

*Job 14:14. tJohn 12:24. 

149 



150 SOLDIERS OF THE LEGION 

or lower, form of spirit continuance — as he may 
have chosen and prepared. 

You, who read this book, have you thought 
of it as religious ? Religious — "devotional, con- 
scientiously exact or strict," (look in your 
dictionary — every one accepts it as authority!) 
it must be, these days, to rightfully exist. Re- 
ligion (see your dictionary again) is "any sys- 
tem of faith or worship, love and obedience 
toward God." Those who are in this great 
strife of Right against Wrong require no dic- 
tionary to define Religion — nor do you, oh, my 
Americans, as the battle reaches yours and you ! 

One of our truly great ministers. Rector 
James E. Freeman, working in United States 
contonments now, stoutly securing the hearts 
of America's youth, who shall slay the modern 
Minotaur, with the strong Ariadnean thread of 
faith which lightens death's darkness into a 
glorious labyrinth of life, has told us how, 
where a town was utterly destroyed, there 
stood what was left of a beautiful church, built 
in the fourteenth century. The altar had been 
crushed. Huge pillars lay prone. The crucifix 
was trampled, into the dust. But, in the midst 



LIFE IN DEATH 151 

of all that pitiful ruin and desolation, there 
stood unharmed a cheap plaster image of the 
Virgin Mary, mother of Christ, which shells 
and insult spared. Alone, with outstretched 
arms, pleading with man to remember her 
divine child, that most sacred woman of all the 
world calls on us to do what is right and go 
straight. 

In her own realization — and in proof to a not 
always charitable, if mistaken, judging world, 
that her spiritual life and power are of far 
greater worth and importance than her vast 
material wealth, also in really learning the truth 
of that too familiar — ''He that loveth his life 
shall lose it; and he that hateth his life in this 
w^orld shall keep it unto life eternal,"* is Amer- 
ica now finding her soul? 

The materialistic profiteer, who evades duty, 
and fattens on the soldier's blood, will pass. 
But the soldier whose inspiring deeds shall stir 
the heart of future generations has kindled the 
flame that burns forever. 

When the materialist has cashed his coupons, 
the money won't keep his body from the mag- 

*John 12:25. 



152 SOLDIERS OF THE LEGION 

gots. It may buy him a mausoleum, but not the 
respect of loyal patriots who are willing to give 
their all, in order to live up to their traditions. 

Stocks and bonds have a market value — but 
Honor and Liberty are priceless. 

It was the materialism of the Kaiser that 
started this war. He is confronted by millions 
of dead bodies on the battlefields of France 
whose spirits demand that they must not have 
bled in vain. He is haunted by Jeanne d'Arc, 
by the awakened spirit of 76. 

These hover near, stimulating, inspiring the 
living to yet nobler deeds. Incorruptible, they 
flock to those who fight to the death, and every 
death sends forth a living force. 

America, sunk in materialism, now hearkens 
to her forefathers — Washington, Hamilton, 
Greene, LaFayette, Rochambeau, Lincoln, 
Sherman and Grant, calling us to Righteous- 
ness. 

The chastening hand of God has raised us 
where we can again see great Ideals, forgotten. 



LIFE IN DEATH 153 

These are the foundation on which Democ- 
racy rests, — not wealth and class distinctions. 

We are making the world safe for Democ- 
racy? Let us make Democracy safe for the 
world. While the soldier kills Prussianism with 
the bullet, the civilian must end political and 
profiteering abuses with his vote. 

He who died that men may live now con- 
quors and tames him who has lived that men — 
and women, and little children, might die ! 



CHAPTER XII 

THE 170TH FRENCH REGIMENT 

When we Americans went into the 170th, 
Seeger, Morlae, Narutz and others stayed with 
the 2nd Legion, which two weeks later was 
merged with the 1st Legion. Narutz remarked, 
in his philosophic manner, "The 170th is a reg- 
iment volante, always used in quick, double ac- 
tion work. Their specialty is bayonet attack. 
I am too old to go steeple chasing over barbed 
wire, in a ripped up country, with not one hun- 
dred yards of solid ground, then twenty yards 
of nothing, a 70 pound sack on my back, a two 
dollar thirst in my stomach and Boche machine 
guns in front. Believe me, the Legion is quite 
swift enough. I know what this is and will 
stick to what I have and am used to — what I 
have not had, I might not like." Seeger, as 
usual, silent, mystic; indomitable, appeared not 
to listen. His thoughts were in the clouds. 
He had made up his mind to stay. That set- 
tled it — no explanation necessary. 

154 



170th FRENCH REGIMENT 155 

Of the Americans who changed, but three, 
Sergeant Capdevielle, Sergeant Jacobs and 
Lieutenant Mulhauser remain.* The Colonel, 
of that date, is now General Polalacelli. 

The 170th is a notable regiment. Time and 
again have its members been complimented by 
General Joffre. They are his children, his pride. 
Never were they called upon when they failed 
to make good. They have rushed into almost 
certain extermination and come out alive. 
Anointed with success, they fear nothing. They 
have charged into a cataclysm of destruction 
which swallowed up whole companies, and re- 
turned with a battalion of German prisoners. 

Against all opposition, they prevail. Spite of 
death, they live, always triumphant, never de- 
feated. Theirs is an invincibility — a contempt 
of peril, which only men who have continually 
risked and won can have. In the confusion and 
complications of battle, they are masters in ob- 
struction and counter-attack. They have been 
torn, shocked and churned about — but they 
have arrived. Faces burning in zeal, exalted 
for the cause they serve, stimulated by the com- 

* All gone, with the passing of Capdevielle, October 3, 1918. 



156 SOLDIERS OF THE LEGION 

panionship of kindred spirits, they heedlessly 
dash to victory, or, the Sunset. 

We turned directly about and went with this 
new regiment, back to the front line. We re- 
lieved our own old regiment, the Foreign Le- 
gion. Eight men, all Americans, were together 
in one squad. Inside of a week, only three were 
left. That is, there were but three, when I was 
sent away for repairs. 

We were in a captured German headquarters 
with equipment, ammunition, war debris, dead 
men and killed horses, strewed about. Along 
the edge of a hill was a German graveyard. 
About two hundred German soldiers, killed in a 
previous engagement, were buried there. Ger- 
man batteries, on the opposite hill top, kept 
bombarding their lost position, hoping to drive 
the French captors out. They shot up those 
dead Germans — the atmosphere grew pungent 
— the stench penetrated every corner. It set- 
tled heavy on the lungs. It was impossible to 
get away from it. 

It was in late October, 1915. The only time 
food or water could be sent up to us was at 



170th FRENCH REGIMENT 157 

night. Coffee was chilled by morning. Dur- 
ing the day, as usual, we slept in the bottom of 
the trenches with shoes and cartridge belts on. 
At night the regular program was, — patrol, 
guard, digging trenches, placing barbed wire, 
bringing up ammunition and supplies, with 
always that dreadful smell. 

One morning, October 19, 1915, looking over 
at the Boche, I saw a shrapnel burst overhead. 
A second after a bullet embedded itself in my 
forehead. Some time later, feeling foolish for 
having been caught as shortstop for a German 
hit, I heard Bob Scanlon say, ''You lucky fool. 
You lay rolled up warm in those Boche blankets 
all morning, while I was up, trying to find a 
place to heat the coffee. Now, you will go 
south, where it is warm, and I shall have to stay 
here and freeze." 



CHAPTER XIII 

163RD AND 92ND REGIMENTS 

Returning to the front I was sent as a rein- 
forcement to the 163rd who had just come from 
Verdun, where they had one battahon captured. 

After a few days rest, while they were getting 
reinforcements and new clothing and equip- 
ment, we were sent up to the front where, with 
the exception of ten days when we went to Lav- 
eline to be refitted again (but two men left in 
my squad), my company, the 7th, was in the 
first and second line trenches for seven contin- 
uous months. 

In the 163rd I saw a French regiment at its 
best. The Legion is composed of men from all 
countries. The 170th is from many French 
regiments and sections. The 163rd all came 
from southern France. They saw alike, under- 
stood one another and worked together. Kind 
and considerate, they were a band of ideal 

158 



163rd and 92nd REGIMENTS 159 

brothers. They took pleasure in having an 
American feel at home. They made sure that 
he got his share of clothing, rations and duty. 
He, noticing those little courtesies, in his ap- 
preciation, became a better soldier. 

What I liked about this regiment was the 
supreme contempt the officers had for the 
Boches — and could not but admire how easily 
the}^ slipped things over on Fritz. With such 
leaders, hard work and suffering became sport 
— as we Kiboshed the Boches! 

Owing to the even character of the men, it 
was not necessary to have as strict discipline 
as in the Legion. Here the soldiers were more 
content — more companionable — were all veter- 
ans — many wounded badly enough so they 
could not have remained in a regiment of at- 
tack, — yet steady and dependable, and almost 
invaluable, where the enemy's trenches were 
about thirty yards away, — and the two forces 
were in constant touch. 



In the winter of 1916-17 weakened by rheu- 
matism, after fighting in three active first line 



i6o SOLDIERS OF THE LEGION 

regiments, I was finally sent to the 92nd Terri- 
torials, a working regiment, then in a near-by 
sector. 

These grand-dads, from forty to fifty-five 
years of age, the debris of "Papa" Joffre's old 
army, were all physically unfit — yet, not old 
enough to die. The object in holding them 
together was to have a reserve — in order to 
use what few ounces of strength they still 
had. 

Officers and doctors were considerate and 
very kind. But, even that could not keep a 
number of the men from caving in as Nature's 
limit was reached. 

One night at Bussang, after unloading coal in 
a snowstorm, my wet cotton gloves were as 
stiff with frost as were my knees with rheuma- 
tism. Quite fed up, I went to the doctor, de- 
termined to thrash the matter out with him. 
"Yes," he responded, "I know you are not in 
condition, but, we are hard pressed now. We 
must use every ounce of energy we have." I 
quit knocking, stuck it out a few days longer, 
then went to pieces. 



163rd and 92nd REGIMENTS i6i 

Such is soldier life. One starts out strong and 
full of pep, fit to serve in the Foreign Legion, 
the best in France. Then in the 170th, graded 
the fourth. Then to the 163rd, a good trench 
regiment. Then to the 92nd Territorials, a 
working regiment. Then to hospital — trans- 
ferred back to the Legion — to be invalided 
home. 



CHAPTER XIV 

HOSPITAL LIFE 

In 1915 there were 6,400 hospitals in France 
and 18,000 doctors. During large offensives the 
wounded arrived in Paris at the rate of thirty 
trainloads per day. In Lyons at one time there 
were 15,000 wounded men. At Verdun 28,000 
wounded men were treated in one hospital dur- 
ing a 25 day period. In the spring of 1918, 40 
per cent of the entire French Army had been 
killed, captured or hopelessly mutilated. Of 
the 60 per cent remaining at that time there 
were 1,500,000 wounded and crippled men in 
the hospitals of France. 

With the exception, as far as known, of the 
American Hospital at Nice and the Scottish 
Woman's Hospital at Royemont, both of 
which maintain themselves, the pay for care 
and attendance of each patient which comes 
from the French Government is limited to one 
franc, 25 centimes per day (22^ cents). The 
balance is made up by the Red Cross, indi- 
viduals and communities, according to the 

162 



HOSPITAL LIFE 163 



CRAND uUARTIER GENERAL 

du NORD «t <Jb SOKi>-EST 



/r/-iM .;<»),■ 



ORDKE GENERAL N 8 D. E." (EXTR 




^ f 

* ,. ,. 'i 









I <>l\ lit t I hi h 
U I "I 



R NIVELLE 



Le Lieuteaant-Co'o-nel 



i^t-^. 



PRIVATE JACK'S SERBIAN MEDAL CITATION 



164 



SOLDIERS OF THE LEGION 



largeness, or smallness, of the views and pock- 
etbooks of those who assist. 



Hospitals are of two 
classes. They are in or 
out of the army zone. 
The Army Zone is a piece 
of land under strict mili- 
tary law, extending, pos- 
sibly, twenty miles back 
from the trenches. 

Ordinarily, weekly Red 
Cross trains carry the 
evacuated wounded, or 
disabled, soldiers from the 
Army Zone to the interior. 
During a general engage- 
ment trains wait, are filled 
with wounded from am- 
bulances, and sent away 
immediately as soon as 
filled. 

The hospital in the 
Army Zone, necessary for 
military reasons, is not 
looked upon with favor by 




SERBIAN MEDAL 

A limited number of 
these decorations were 
presented by S. A. R., the 
Prince Regent of Serbia, to 
President Poincare of the 
French Republic, for dis- 
tribution to officers and men 
for distinguished and bril- 
liant conduct under fire. 
Two were allotted the 
163rd Regiment of the Line 
— one for an officer, the 
other to a private. 



HOSPITAL LIFE 165 

the common soldier. It is too military. He has 
his fill of red tape and regulations. He wants to 
forget there ever was a war, or that he ever was 
a soldier. He regards discipline as he does lice, 
and medicine and bad neighbors. It may be 
necessary to put up with them but he does not 
wish to do so any longer than needs be. 

If he must have a nurse, he does not want a 
limping, growling, medically unfit man. He 
prefers placing his sufifering-racked body, in- 
jured by the hand of hate, where it can be 
nursed back to health with kindly ministering 
love. 

The sick soldier does not want to be pestered 
or bothered. He prefers to be left alone. He 
does not wish a nosing uplifter to come and tell 
him what he shall do, and what he shall not do. 
He had enough orders in the army. Because 
he wears a uniform, he is none the less a man. 
He may not be rich. But riches are no passport 
to heaven. He has only contempt for lively 
humbugs, who ape superiority, and try to push 
something down his throat which he does not 
want. 

In the Army Zone hospital, supposed to be 
sick, he is not allowed outside except under car- 



i66 SOLDIERS OF THE LEGION 

tain conditions, and then in charge of a nurse. 
When convalescent, he is quarantined in the 
Eclopes. Here, rather than moon his time away, 
and to keep from going stark crazy, he asks to 
be sent back to the front. 

In the hospitals of the interior, he gets much 
more liberal treatment. If able, he may wander 
about, without a chaperon, in the afternoons. 
He will buy a red herring and walk up the mid- 
dle of the street eating it. Four men go into a 
shop, buy five cents worth of cheese, and each 
pays for his own wine. 

Store windows have an irresistible attraction 
for him. 

Post cards hold his gaze for hours. 

A whistling small boy brings him to a full 
stop. He has not heard such a happy sound 
for a long time. He blesses the little fellow for 
showing so much cheer in the midst of suffer- 
ing. 

After several days, he notices people stare at 
him a good deal. Yes, he limps too much. 
Every step brings pain. He senses their kindly 



HOSPITAL LIFE 167 

sympathy but, somehow or other, resents it. So, 
he goes out into the country, where, while he 
rests in the lap of Nature, the warm sun helps 
the doctors coax the poison from the wound, 
rheumatism from the joints, and shock from 
the system. 

Away from the front, away from the busy 
haunts of men, all through France, in chateaux, 
in old convents and high schools, in sisters' hos- 
pitals, conducted by the Union of Femmes de 
France, the Society of Dames Francaises, and 
the Society Secours aux Malades and Blesses 
Militaires, under the kindly treatment of those 
unswerving, unflinching nurses, he recovers his 
strength, then goes to the front for Freedom or 
Glory I-mmortal. 

I shall not forget the many little courtesies 
received in the French hospitals at Saumur, 
Montreuil-Ballay, Remiremont, Pont de Veyle 
and Bourg. Suffering unites the sympathetic. 
Pain is the barometer that tests the human 
fiber. The soldier, who has been through the 
fire with his fellows, who has been wounded, as 
they were, who suffered, as they did, has an es- 
tablished comradeship that endures. He was 



i68 SOLDIERS OF THE LEGION 

interested in them and they in him. When he 
is low and the day ahead looks dark and dreary, 
he can feel their sympathy. Probably no word 
is spoken, but he knows the whole ward is pull- 
ing for him. He does not want to disappoint 
his friends. He rises to the occasion. That 
sympathy means the difference between life 
and death. 

In the early days of the war, flowers, cigar- 
ettes, reading matter and luxuries, were show- 
ered upon wounded soldiers. Gradually, as 
private and public interests demanded atten- 
tion, visitors were compelled to work for them- 
selves, or for the State. 

The faithful, never-tiring nurses patiently 
remain at their posts, color washed from their 
cheeks, hands worn, seamed by labor, dark eyes, 
flashing stars of a wintry night, unceasingly, 
they work to bring back to health those 
who almost died for them. In their sweet, white 
uniforms, suppressing their own troubles with 
a jolly smile, they greet and welcome the mud- 
stained, lousy, dirty poilu and give him an affec- 
tionate word — far more eflicient, a much better 
tonic, than medicine. 



CHAPTER XV 

AN INCIDENT 

Early spring, 1916, at Boulogne, dressed as a 
French poilu, I stepped off the channel boat 
from Folkstone, and, hurrying to the railroad 
station, learned that the express would not 
leave for Paris till 8 o'clock — a wait of five 
hours. 

The day was cold. Snow was blowing around 
the street corner. The raw sea breeze cut to the 
marrow. Buttoning a thin overcoat, still crum- 
pled from going through the crumming ma- 
chine, sure sign of hospital treatment, I walked 
about aimlessly. 'Tish and chips.'' Yes, that 
was what I' wanted. I wasn't hungry, but it 
must be warm inside. It was also the last chance 
for some time to indulge in finny luxuries. Lots 
of water in those long, narrow trenches, skirt- 
ing "No-Man's-Land," but no fish. Grinning, 
I recalled one cold, heart-breaking morning, 
when an unseen German yelled across: 

"Hello, Francais, have you the brandy?" 
169 



170- SOLDIERS OF THE LEGION 

''No, have you?" 

''No, we have not; but we have the water!'' 



We knew that — for we had just drained our 
trench mto theirs. 



I took my time and when not picking fish 
bones gazed, reflectively, at the miserable 
weather outside. I chatted in English with Brit- 
ish Tommies and exchanged a few remarks in 
French with the little waitress. At the cash- 
ier's counter, a stranger, dressed as an English 
private soldier, rasped out, in an aggressive, au- 
thoritative voice: 

"Here! You speak very good English," 

Tn spite of not liking his tone, I responded, 
"Oh, I don't know." 

"You don't know? Well, I know. You speak 
as good English as I do." 

"I don't know that you have any monopoly 
on the English language." 

"You don't know, eh, you don't know? I 
v/ouH like to know what you do know." 

"Well, I know something you don't." 

"What's that?" 

"I know enough to mind my own business." 



AN INCIDENT 171 

After a few seconds dead silence, the Eng- 
lishman said, "Who are you?'' 

''That's my business." 

"It's my business to find out." 

"Well, find out." 

"Let me see your papers." 

"I will not." 

"If you don't let me see your papers, I will 
take you up to the Base Court." 

"You won't take me any place — understand 
that?" 

I paid the frightened little waitress. The 
English Tommies were taking eyesfull instead 
of mouthsfull. I was angered. I was minding 
my own business. Why could not the English- 
man mind his? The more I thought of it, the 
warmer I got. Turning to him I said, "You not 
only don't mind your own business, but you 
don't know where you are. You are in France, 
where soldiers are treated as men." 

Half an hour later, the Englishman, accom- 
panied by a Frenchman in uniform, stopped me 
in the street. The Frenchman spoke, — 

"Good day, mister." 

"Good day." 



172 SOLDIERS OF THE LEGION 

"Will you show me your papers, if you 
please?'' 

"Who are you — are you a policeman?" 

"No." 

"What right have you to see my papers?" 

"I belong to the Bureau." 

"The Bureau of shirkers?" 

"No, the Bureau of the Place." 

"Well, I will show them at the proper time 
and place." 

A small crowd had collected. A poilu, cov- 
ered with trench mud, asked, "What is the mat- 
ter?" 

"Oh, this fellow wants to see my papers." 

"Well, haven't you got them?" 

"Yes." 

"Let me see them." 

At the first glance he saw the Foreign Le- 
gion stamp. 

"Ha, ha, la Legion ! I know the Legion, come 
along and we will have a litre of wine." 

So, we two walked away and left the crowd 
disputing among themselves. I remarked to 
the Englishman, who had stood silently watch- 
ing, "I told you before, you were too ignorant 



AN INCIDENT 173 

to mind your own business. Now, you see you 
are." 

The wine disposed of, we parted. Looking 
back, I saw the Englishman following a hun- 
dred yards behind. He crossed the street and 
stood on the opposite corner. He stopped three 
English officers and told his little tale of woe. 
They crossed, in perfect time, spurs jingling, 
and bore down, three abreast, upon me, the 
pauvre poilu, who did not salute. 

''You have come from England, where you 
have been spending your convalescence?'' 

"Yes." 

"Have you your convalescence papers with 
you?" 

"Of course." ' 

"You must excuse me; but, would you mind 
showing them?" 

"Certainly, with pleasure." 

After scanning them, one said to the other, 
"They look all right." No answer. 'They look 
all right, don't they, Phil?" No answer. The 
junior officer, a Lieutenant, conducted the 
examination. Of the other two older men. 



174 SOLDIERS OF THE LEGION 

one turned his head away, looking down the 
street, the other gazed at the Lieutenant 
with a pecuHar, ahiiost disgusted expres- 
sion. 

I then asked, "By the way, is it the business 
of the English in France to demand the creden- 
tials of French soldiers? What right has that 
man to interfere with me?" 

"You must show your papers to the military 
authorities." 

"Is that man a 'military authority'?" 

The Lieutenant looked round and not seeing 
the disturber, turned to Phil, "Where is he?" 

"Oh, I don't know. He said something about 
going to get the military police. Let's go." The 
Lieutenant, turning to me, said, "It is all right. 
You may go and tell that man we said you were 
all right." 

I did not move, but stood at attention and 
saluted while the officers walked away. 

I didn't know who "that man" was, nor yet 
the name of "we," but I didn't care. Half an 
hour later "that man" arrived with English 



AN INCIDENT 175 

soldiers, or military police, headed by a newly 
made Corporal and a Scotch veteran who ra- 
diated intelligence with dignity and self-re- 
spect. 

After walking, captive, a few minutes, I 
asked, "Where are we going?" 

"To the Base Court." 

I thought I was a sucker, playing the Butt- 
in-ski's game. Throwing my back against the 
wall, I answered, — "If you want to take me to 
the Base Court, you will have to carry me." 

A long silence followed, and a crowd col- 
lected. The English corporal started to blus- 
ter. I demanded, — "What business have you 
to interfere with me?" 

"We have orders to make you show your 
papers." 

"Who gave you those orders?" 

The Corporal did not answer. The Scotch- 
man turned to him and said, — "Who is that 
damned fool that is always getting us into trou- 
ble?" 

The Corporal responded, — "I don't know, — 
he gave me a card. Here it is." 



176 SOLDIERS OF THE LEGION 

I looked over the Corporal's shoulder and 
read, Lieutenant P n. 

The Scotchman asked, — "Don't you have to 
show your papers?" 

''Yes, to those v^ho have the right to see 
them." 

"Who are they?'^ 

"The gendarmes, the commissaire, and the 
proper officials." 

Then, that smooth Scotchman slipped one 
over on me, — "Look here, soldier, don't be fool- 
ish. Think of yourself and look at us — v^e 
v^ould look like hell getting into a row with a 
French soldier, with this crowd about, wouldn't 
we? If you don't want to go to the English 
court, let's go to the French commissaire and 
get the damned thing over with." 

r replied, "You are engaged in a lovely busi- 
ness, aren't you? You permit German officers, 
who are fighting in the German army against 
Great Britain, to retain their titles in the Eng- 
lish House of Lords; and you come over to 
France and arrest your ally, the French com- 
mon soldier." 

"We had to mind orders, ma lad, 'E don't 
doubt ye're a' richt." 



AN INCIDENT 177 

The Corporal put in, "Vm not so sure about 
that/' 

I replied, 'T bet you're making a trip fof 
nothing." 

"What will you bet?" 

"Oh, I don't know — a glass of beer." 

"Good, that's a go," said the Corporal. "Ah'll 
help ye drink it," said the Scot. 



The Commissaire examined my papers 
closely. Turning to the Corporal, he asked, 
"What have you brought this man here for?" 

The Corporal replied, "He speaks very good 
English and not very good French." 

The Commissaire observed, "I don't know 
about his English, but he speaks better French 
than you do." 

"We don't know who he is." 



The Commissaire responded, "This man is a 
soldier of France, an American citizen, a vol- 
unteer in the Foreign Legion. His papers show 
that, and his identification badge confirms it. 
The papers also state he was wounded in the 
forehead. Look at that scar ! The papers show 
he is returning to his regiment. Here is his rail- 



178 SOLDIERS OF THE LEGION 



~\ If^t^^'^Wpli&l ' Evacuation N" 38 

Grade .. __ ifeginiem' ^^/^' ^_1' : Ji ^ (\ 

N^ d'ordre „. _._ Au camet de passage N* 

Oiagnoslic 

I ? " - '' »l/ -"^ 



i 

^ Mi 



Bicsse le 

Temperature 

Evacue 




y 



A ^A( > .le ^^/'"- /.-^ lyi 



Lc MMi'cin de service, 



M: 



i*aiisemeni fait le v.^ ^'' 



N. B. - Ittjeete le 



l^ansemeiit a relaire le _ ^ri ^-'^ 



CONVALESENCE CERTIFICATE 



AN INCIDENT 179 

road ticket. What do you want with him? 
What charge do you enter against him?" 

The Corporal looked uncomfortable. The 
Scotchman walked away. The Commissaire 
came around the table and shook hands with 
me. In horror, the Corporal whispered, point- 
ing to the Commissaire, "He is a Colonel !" and 
started to walk away. I called out, "Here, 
where are you going — aren't you going to buy 
that beer?" 

After buying, the Corporal hurried off. I 
followed more slowly and watched half a dozen 
English soldiers. in animated conversation with 
the Corporal, the Scotchman and the Lieuten- 
ant Buttinski. 

I studied the pantomine for some time, then 
wandered about, till my train was ready to start 
for Paris. Seeing Lieutenant P n look- 
ing through the iron railing, I waved him fare- 
well; but he did not respond. A Frenchman 
would either have waved his hand or shaken his 
fist! 



CHAPTER XVI 

NATURE^S FIRST LAW 

The American soldier in France finds new 
scenes, new conditions, new customs. Uncon- 
sciously he compares life back home with his 
new experiences, often to the latter's disadvan- 
tage. He sees things he does not like, that he 
would change, that he could improve. But, 
what does appeal to him as perfect is the large 
number of small farms (53 per cent of French- 
men are engaged in agriculture) with the little 
chateaux, built upon miniature estates, exqui- 
sitely tended, artistically designed, that give 
joy to the eye and food for the stomach. These 
beautiful homes encourage thrift, they show 
him, often, the better way. 

Pride of possession makes the Frenchman 
patriotic, national. When the enemy struck 
France, they struck him. He rushed to the 
frontier to meet invaders who sought to subdue 
him and destroy his happy home. From a 
cheerful, mirth-loving man, he has become se- 

i8o 



NATURE'S FIRST LAW i8i 

rious and morose. Not now does he sing or 
laugh. He has been treated unjustly. An 
overwhelming power tried to force on him 
something he will not have. He does not blus- 
ter — he waits. He does not scold — he works. 
When the time comes — he acts. 

To the non-land-owning German industrial 
slaves, driven by the strong hand of Autocracy, 
he says, — "You shall not enslave us. If you 
have not the brains to free yourselves, we shall 
free you, whether you wish it or not." To the 
robbers' cry for peace (so they can legalize 
their stolen loot) the French soldier replies, — 
"Yes, when justice has been done, justice to the 
wronged, the oppressed, the raped. Justice is 
obtained by regular procedure in a criminal 
court, not by negotiation between equals. Ar- 
bitration is not possible between a crazy man 
and the woman he has assaulted. The mad man 
must be caught and properly judged. If in- 
sane, he should be confined, if not, he must 
be punished.'' 

As civilians become city broke, soldiers take 
on army ways. Instead of walking in mobs, 
they move in rows. Near the front, from march- 



i82 SOLDIERS OF THE LEGION 

ing in companies, they advance in sections. 
These disintegrate, when an apparently stray 
shell comes along. Units become individuals 
of initiative and intelligence, adaptable to sud- 
den, strange environment. Necessity super- 
sedes the regular book of rules. Books are 
printed, orders given, to regulate ordinary con- 
ditions. 

The soldier's conditions under fire are neither 
ordinary nor regular. Instinct tells him v^hen 
to brace, when to duck. He knows an order 
to stand up or lie down won't stop that shell, 
put his cocoanut back, or reassemble his family 
tree. So, he does what he thinks best. He may 
obey or disobey the order, and save or lose his 
life. The man who gave the order may die be- 
cause he did, or did not, obey. 

A good soldier can generally kick off unnec- 
essaries as fast as a poor officer can load them 
on. He runs light before the wind. Instead of 
wearing himself out as a hewer of wood and a 
hauler of water, he saves his strength for the 
enemy. 

A luminous watch on the wrist, a compass in 
the pocket, a 2x6 box, with toilet necessaries, 



NATURE'S FIRST LAW 183 

are his private stock in trade. The other sixty 
pounds are regular army. He always hangs 
onto his gun, cartridges, bombs, little shovel, 
and tin hat. He doesn't want tight-fitting 
shoes, but prefers them a size or two large. He 
doesn't buckle his belt regulation style. In- 
stead of buckling his cartridge belt in front, he 
fastens it on the side, so he can slide the cart- 
ridge boxes around, where they won't gouge 
into his body when he sleeps. He covers his 
rifle with oil. He wipes out his mess tin with 
dry bread crumbs. He does not gormandize be- 
fore a long march, or fill up on cold water. He 
keeps his feet in good condition. He covers up 
his head when asleep, so the rats won't disturb 
him. He keeps his rifle within reach and is 
always ready to move at a moment's notice. 

One day, he may have eaten up the regula- 
tion hand-book of rules, for breakfast, dined 
comfortably on regimental orders, and, going 
to sleep, with taps blowing in his dome, dreamed 
sets of fours and double time. Next day, he 
wakes up, to find by actual experience that, 
while plans are made and ordered, everything 
is actually gained by opportunity, individual- 
ity, initiative. 



i84 SOLDIERS OF THE LEGION 

He may pass years in peaceful climes, going, 
like a side-walk comedian, through the empty 
mummeries of a Broadway spectacular produc- 
tion. Put under shot and shell, he just knows 
he is a soldier, who must keep his feet warm 
and his head cool. 



The Poilu is first, first on outpost, first at the 
enemy, first in his home, first in the affection 
of his country. From the ranks of the poilu the 
ofiicers are drawn. He is the Foundation. He 
honors France, France honors him. 

When, in 1914, he, with the original Tommy 
Atkins, turned at the Marne, attacked fifty-two 
army corps of well-equipped, well-drilled, rap- 
idly advancing, victorious Huns, outnumbering 
him 8 to 5, and drove them back with his bay- 
onet (for some regiments had no cartridges), 
he saved not only France, but England, Amer- 
ica and civilization. 

During the terrible year of 1915, it was the 
bare breast and naked bayonet of the poilu and 
the little French 75 that halted superior forces 
of the enemy, flanked and aided by longer- 



NATURE'S FIRST LAW 185 

ranged, heavy artillery, Zeppelins, liquid flame 
and aeroplanes. 

Remember, German casualties, the first year 
of the war, were 3,500,000 men. 

For eight continuous months, he was ada- 
mant, behind Verdun. One million men (600,- 
000 Germans and 400,000 French) were inca- 
pacitated within the three square mile tract 
that guards the entrance to that historic 
town, where, a century before. Napoleon 
kept his English prisoners. Here, the poilu 
sent the German lambs to glory as fast as 
their Crown Prince could lead them to the 
slaughter. 

With face of leather, his forehead a mass of 
wrinkles, which hurt neither the face nor his 
feelings — a man as careless of dress as the 
French poilu, naturally, doesn't care whether 
his clothes fit him or not, — ^^he goes his fine, 
proud way. His once happy countenance, now 
saddened by suffering, will yet light up in ap- 
preciation. A little kindness makes him elo- 
quent. Strong in the righteousness of his 
cause, he does not bow his head in sorrow, or 



i86 SOLDIERS OF THE LEGION 

bend in weakness. He stands upright, four- 
square to the world. He has lived down dis- 
comfort. He cares nothing for exposure or 
starvation. He has seen what the brutes have 
done in the reconquered villages he passed 
through. He is determined they shall not do it 
in his home, or, if his home is in the invaded 
territory, he declares they shall pay for the 
damage. Animated by the spirit of justice, en- 
nobled by the example of St. Genevieve, of 
Jeanne d'Arc, of Napoleon, inspired by the 
courage and devotion of the wonderful women 
of France, supported by a united country, he 
knows he is fighting for self-preservation and a 
world's freedom. 

He closed, locked, barred the door at the 
Marne. Now he guards the gate. He makes 
no complaint and asks no favors. With almost 
certainty of death in front, trouble in his heart, 
body racked by fatigue, with dark forebodings 
of the future, bled white by repeated onslaughts, 
he remains at his post and does his duty, with- 
out a murmur. 

French officers are real, improved property, 
not vacant lots. They are leaders, not follow- 



NATURE'S FIRST LAW 187 

ers. Ordinary people see what goes on before 
their eyes. The French officer is not an ordi- 
nary person. Anything that is happening, or 
has happened, his quick mind connects with 
something else a mile away — not yet arrived. 
When it comes along, it has already been met; 
and he is waiting for the next move. His spe- 
cial study is the German Military Manual, his 
long suit concentration and initiative. 

He will grasp another man's opportunity, tie 
a double knot in it, and have it safely stowed 
away, before the bungler misses it. He dis- 
counts the future, beats the other man to it and 
arrives with both feet when not expected — just 
before the other is quite ready. Endowed with 
foresight, farsight, secondsight and hindsight, 
he sees all about and far away in front. Every 
isolated movement is noticed. He connects it 
up with some future possible development, 
eventuality or danger. 

Men of other nations may have delusions 
about German organization and system, but 
the French officer has none. He has beaten 
Fritz, time after time. He knows he can do it 
again; and, if there is any one thing he espe- 



i88 SOLDIERS OF THE LEGION 

cially delights in, it is to throw a wrench into 
that ponderous, martial machinery and break 
Kultur's plans. Germans are lost with no rule 
to follow, and their head-piece won't work. 
They are at the mercy of the man who makes 
precedents, but who does not bother to follow 
them. 

Many a soldier has an aversion to saluting 
officers — it looks like servility. We do it with 
pleasure in France, as a token of respect. The 
French officers at the front do not insist upon 
it, and often shake hands after the return salute. 
Mon Capitaine is the father of his company, the 
soldiers are mes enfants (my children). They 
go to the captain when they have a grievance, 
not as a favor, but because it is their right; and 
he grants their request — or gives them four 
days in prison, as the case demands, with a 
smile. Soldiers accept his decision without 
question. The French officer does not mistake 
snobbishness for gentility or braggadocio for 
bravery. In the attack, he takes the lead. In 
the trench warfare he shares dangers and dis- 
comforts with his men. 

It is a great honor to be an active French of- 
ficer. He is there because his achievements 



NATURE'S FIRST LAW 189 

forced him upward. He has climbed over ob- 
stacles, and been promoted on account of merit, 
not through influence. He holds the front,' 
while the inefficient, the aged, or crippled, are 
relegated to the rear. 



The soldier pays with his hide for the civil- 
ian's comforts. The civilian, in turn, apes the 
soldier, presents a military bearing, in khaki 
coat, with swagger stick, a camera, a haversack 
and Joiners' decorations. While the citizen 
works (or shirks) to sustain the soldier, he is 
either using his strength on the front, or build- 
ing it up in the hospital. 

An enthusiastic, spirited volunteer, gradually 
becomes a silent, sober, calculating veteran. His 
days have been troubled. His nights knew no 
peace. Recognizing discipline as the first prin- 
ciple of organization, that it is necessary to 
have individual obedience, for a group to act 
harmoniously, he submits. On the front, he 
finds — himself. 

Half a dozen men are taking comfort in the 
shelter of a dugout. The next instant, five are 



IQO SOLDIERS OF THE LEGION 

one hundred feet in air, snuffed out, torn into 
atoms. But one is left, staring, mouth open. 
The others, swift arrivals at Kingdom Come, 
went so quickly into the great Beyond, they 
never knew or felt the shock. 

So with the rum ration low and the water 
high, the morning bright in sunlight, surround- 
ings dark with death, one's thoughts spring 
from the mind. Words fill the mouth. One 
grasps his pencil to catch burning impressions 
that flood his brain. He might as well try to 
tell his grandmother how to raise babies as to 
think straight! He reaches out and connects 
up, apparently isolated, strings of thought. He 
links a chain of circumstance bearing on de- 
struction's delirious delusion that now rocks 
the foundations of the world, which reacts on 
and affects every civilization and individual on 
earth. 

He looks at things from an angle different 
from that of the civilian. He has a new con- 
ception of life. He is not the same person he 
was before the war. No longer does he smell 
the flowers, eat the fruit, or dwell in the home 
of civilization. He has lived, like a beast, in a 



NATURE'S FIRST LAW 191 

hole in the ground, and slept in a seeping dug- 
out with the rats and the lice. He has seen his 
companion go over the top, killed off, changed 
from a human comrade into a clod. He has 
lived long betv^een tv^o earthen v^alls, the blue 
sky above, a comrade on each side, v^ith Fritz 
across the v^ay. 

It v^as a narrow prospect. His point of view 
was limited; but he knew that, while appar- 
ently alone, he and his comrades were links in 
that strong, continuous chain of men who keep 
back the enemies of Freedom. Behind that 
chain are others, bracing, reinforcing, — artil- 
lery, infantry, aviators, reserves, money, pro- 
visions and ammunition, flocking to his aid 
from America, from Great Britain, from the ut- 
termost parts. 

Those larger operations in the rear affect him 
but indirectly. The details in front are of vital 
interest. They mean life or death. Every al- 
teration in the landscape demands closest in- 
vestigation. Boys do not play, nor old women 
gabble, in No-Man's-Land. Nothing is done 
there is a cause. An unusual piece of cloth 
without a reason, and, for every change. 



192 SOLDIERS OF THE LEGION 

or paper is scrutinized by a hundred men, 
while a suspicious movement empties their 
guns. 

The soldier acquires the habit of noticing lit- 
tle things. He sees a small, starved flov^er, 
struggling for sunshine and strength, alongside 
the trench. He wonders why it chose such an 
inhospitable home. Next day, there is no 
flower, no trench — just an immense, gaping 
hole in the torn ground. 

He watches the rats. Why are they so im- 
pudent and important? He grows so accus- 
tomed to them, he does not even squirm, when 
they run across him in the darkness at night. 
He knows they have enough camp offal and 
dead men's bodies — they do not eat the living. 
He watches the cat with interest. She is an 
old timer and has seen regiments come and go. 
Her owners are in exile — -they have no home — 
the Germans took it. So, pussy, a lady of sense 
and good taste, dwells with the French soldier. 
He looks at her long, lanky frame and wishes 
for some milk to give her, to counteract the poi- 
son of the rat food. A shell comes along. Pussy 
runs into the dugout, but comes out again to 



NATURE'S FIRST LAW 193 

be petted. Another shell, again she scurries 
away. Kitty does not like shells any more than 
do humans. 

War is the great leveler. Deplored as piti- 
less destroyer, it more than equalizes, a creator 
of good. It annihilates property, kings and 
thrones; but it produces men. It taps hitherto 
unseen springs of sympathy and mutual help- 
fulness, where thrived formerly but the barren 
waste of self-sufficiency. It unmasks the hum- 
bug and reveals the humanitarian. It teaches 
individual self-lessness. The cruelties of the 
oppressor are overcome by love for the op- 
pressed. The dominance of wickedness is 
brought low by sweet charity for its victims. 



CHAPTER XVII 

THE INVADED COUNTRY 

I have seen the German under many condi- 
tions. In the early days of the war, I used to 
listen to his songs — sung very w^ell. But, he 
does not sing now. I have watched the smoke 
rise, in the early morning, as he cooked his 
breakfast. I have dodged his flares, his gren- 
ades, and his sentinels, at night. I have heard 
his shovels ring as he dug himself down, and 
have listened to his talk to his neighbor. I have 
seen him come up on all fours, from his dugout, 
crying "Kamerad''; and I cannot say, that, as 
a common soldier, he is a bad fellow. 

The brutality seems to start with the sous- 
officer. It gets more refined and cruel as rank 
goes up. I have noticed the dazed, hopeless ex- 
pression of pregnant women at Sillery-Sur- 
Marne. They stayed under fire of the guns, 
rather than carry their grief into safety. They 
emerged from their Calvary, with faces as of 
the dead, impassive, masklike, hiding scars of 
agony. 

194 



THE INVADED COUNTRY 195 

I talked with a young woman shop-keeper at 
Verpeliers. The Germans had been in her house 
— slept on the floor, thick as sardines in a box. 
They ate up her stock and did not pay. Was 
she not afraid? She laughed a happy laugh. 
"What me, Monsieur, afraid? I am Francaise. 
What do I care for those swine? The sous-of- 
ficers tried to make me give in. They pointed 
guns at me, and tried to pull me along with 
them when the French returned. I screamed 
and fought. Four of my lodgers are where those 
crosses -stand at the bend of the road. The 
others are prisoners. I am paid, all right, and 
am satisfied." "Yes," she continued, "they 
charged our old men with being in telephonic 
communication with the French Army. Twelve 
were arrested, marked with a blue cross on the 
right cheek, and have not been heard from 
since. Two, M. Poizeaux, aged 47,. and M. 
Vassel, 78 years old, were brought back and 
shot the same evening." 

At Rodern, in reconquered Alsace, where the 
natives spoke German, the streets were marked 
in German letters, German proclamations were 
on the walls, and German money was current, 
I sat with Tex Bondt, in a low Alsatian room, 



196 SOLDIERS OF THE LEGION 

by candle light. The heavy family bed was let 
into a wall and screened off by a curtain, the 
floor was of stone, the furniture primitive. A 
short, squat woman was bewailing her misfor- 
tunes. This mother had six sons and three 
daughters. Three boys mobilized with the Ger- 
man Army. Two were killed. The other is on 
the Russian front. Of the three, who ran away 
and joined the French army, one was killed and 
two wounded. Two of her girls, nurses in the 
German Army, were killed during a bombard- 
ment. As she listened, I watched emotion come 
and go in the eyes of the remaining daughter. 

In the hospital at Montreuil-Ballay, I met an 
old man, wounded in the arm. The fracture 
would not knit. Unable to sleep, weeping re- 
lieved him. He said, "My wife and I were at 
home near Lille, in bed one night. The Ger- 
mans broke in the door, came upstairs, jabbed 
me with a bayonet and made me get out. I kept 
going and joined the French Army.'' 

"And your wife, what of her?" 

"I don't know, I have neither seen nor heard 
from her from that day to this." 

Again, in the hospital at Pont de Veyle, a 
young man on a neighboring cot told me, "Yes, 



THE INVADED COUNTRY 197 

I am from the invaded country. My name is 
La Chaise. Before the war, my father was In- 
spector General of raih-oads for the Depart- 
ment of the North, with headquarters at Lille. 
When the Germans advanced he was taken 
prisoner. I ran away, joined the French Army, 
and my mother and sister were left at our home. 
A German Colonel billeted himself in the house. 
He liked my sister,— she was very beautiful. 
This is her photograph, and these are tresses 
of her hair when she was twelve and eighteen 
years of age. This is her last letter to me. One 
night the Colonel tried to violate my sister. She 
screamed, my mother ran in, shot him twice 
with a revolver and killed him. The sentry en- 
tered, took my mother and sister to prison ; and, 
next morning they were lined up against a wall 
and shot/' 

One night at Madame's, — the bake-shop 
across the road from the hospital at La Croix 
aux Mines, with Leary, an Irishman, Simpson, 
a New Zealander, and an Englishman who was 
in charge of the Lloyds Ambulance service, we 
listened to Madame. 

"Yes, the Germans descended on us from the 
hilltops like a swarm of locusts, ate and drank 



198 SOLDIERS OF THE LEGION 

up everything in sight, hunted us women 
out of our houses into the road and told us it 
was our last chance for liberty. We ran and 
the Germans followed. We did not know we 
were being used as a screen, that we were shel- 
tering the Boche behind. The French would 
not shoot at us but they got the Germans just 
the same, from the flank. I shall never forget 
our selfishness. All we thought about was get- 
ting to our French friends, and we were cover- 
ing the advance of our enemies ! If we had 
known, we'd have died first." 

The Englishman, who had been in the retreat 
from Mons, drawled out, — "Yes, you Ameri- 
cans think the Germans are not bad people. I 
used to think so, too, but when I listened to the 
Belgians telling how some little girls were 
treated, though I felt they were telling the 
truth, it was too horrible to believe. So three 
of us Red Cross men went out one night, — 
where they told us the girls were buried. We 
dug them up ; and, let me tell you, no person on 
earth will ever make me associate with a Ger- 
man again." 

At Nestle, they carried away 164 women. 
The official German explanation was that they 



THE INVADED COUNTRY 199 

should work in Germany, while the cynical of- 
ficers said they would use them as orderlies. On 
August 29, 1914, when the Germans entered the 
city, a mother of seven children was violated by 
three soldiers. Later, she was knocked down 
and again assaulted, by an officer. Five inhab- 
itants were lined up against a wall to be shot, 
when a French counter-attack liberated them. 

In the spring of 1917, at Vraignes, in the in- 
vaded district, the Germans told the people they 
were to be evacuated. After the inhabitants 
had gathered their personal belongings, they 
were driven into the courtyard, stripped and 
robbed of their possessions. Twenty-four 
young women were carried away from this town 
of 253 population. 

At Le Bouage, a suburb of Chauny, before 
the Germans retreated, the French refugees 
were lined up a distance of two kilometers on 
the Chauny-Noyon road and kept there, in a 
pouring rain, four hours. Even the invalids 
were carried out on stretchers. German officers 
passed along the line and picked out thirty-one 
young girls and women, one an invalid girl, 
thirteen years of age, and carried them away 



200 SOLDIERS OF THE LEGION 

with the retreating army. Of the remainder 
within two weeks, fifty persons succumbed 
from the exposure. 

On February 18th, at Noyon, when the Ger- 
mans were compelled to retreat, in addition to 
burning, wrecking and looting, they carried 
away by force fifty young girls between four- 
teen and twenty-one years of age. They looted 
the American Relief store, dynamited the build- 
ing, then turned the canal water into the base- 
ment. 

From Roubaix, Turcoing and Lille 25,000 
civilians were deported. 

"These slave raids commenced, April 22, 
1916, at 3 o'clock in the morning. Troops, with 
fixed bayonets, barred the streets, machine guns 
commanded the roads, against unarmed people. 
Soldiers made their way into the houses, offi- 
cers pointed out the people who were to go. 
Half an hour later, everybody was driven, pell- 
mell, into an adjacent factory, from there to the 
station, whence they departed." Taken from 
the Yellow Book, published by the Minister of 
War, dated June 30, 1916. 



THE INVADED COUNTRY 201 

At Warsage, August 4, 1914, the day Bel- 
gium was violated, three civilians were shot, six 
hanged, nine murdered. 

At Luneville, eighteen civilians were killed, 
including one boy of twelve, shot, and an old 
woman of ninety-eight, bayoneted. 

At Liege, twenty-nine civilians were mur- 
dered, some shot and others bayoneted — yet 
others burned alive. 

At Seilles, fifty civilians were killed. 

At Audennes, August 20 and 21, 1914, 250 
civilians were killed, according to French rec- 
ords, while General Von Bulow, over his own 
signature, in a written order to the people of 
Liege, dated August 22, says that he com- 
manded the town to be reduced to ashes and 
ordered 110 persons shot. 



The process of terrorism is invariably the 
same: — First, the crushing blow of invasion, 
followed by pillage, rape and murder; then, 
when the victims are paralyzed, crushed in 



202 SOLDIERS OF THE LEGION 

spirit, shocked to the heart's core, obnoxious 
regulations are published and enforced to pre- 
vent their recuperating. 

At La Fontenelle, Ban de Sept, and many- 
other villages along the front, manure had 
been thrown into the wells, the fruit trees were 
cut down, the copper was torn from coffins of 
the dead, the farm houses were demolished, and 
all property was taken away or destroyed. One 
would not pay $10 for the whole outfit of a peas- 
ant farmer's home: table, a half dozen chairs, a 
bedstead in the corner, a crucifix hanging on 
the wall, a marriage certificate and a picture 
of the virgin, yet all was gone. The ammunition 
trains that came up from Germany went back 
loaded with such poor people's belongings. 
Nothing left, an old woman's bonnet on a dung- 
heap, a baby's shoe in a corner, a broken pic- 
ture frame or two — that's all. 

Talk about forgiving the Germans! Rob- 
bing the poor, the destruction of property, pos- 
sibly may be forgiven. Property can be re- 
placed. But, the systematic, deliberate ruin of 
non-combatant, innocent women and children, 
is a crime against civilization that can never be 



THE INVADED COUNTRY 203 

forgiven or forgotten. For generations to 
come, the German will be treated as an outlaw. 
He will be shunned — worse than a beast. Un- 
clean, he will have to purge himself before he 
may again be accepted in the society of decent 
women and men. 

Think of those fine-grained, sensitive French 
girls, compelled to live with brutes — generally 
surly, often drunk, who have killed their hus- 
bands, their brothers, their fathers! They 
have broken all the rules of war. They have 
outraged every decency. They are so sunk in 
the abyss of shame that they know neither re- 
spect for the living nor reverence for the dead. 



CHAPTER XVIII 

LOVE AND WAR 

Love and war go together. War destroys 
the body but love lives on with the soul. Love 
and war have transformed the hitherto seem- 
ingly empty-pated, fashionable woman to an 
angel of mercy. Socialists have developed into 
patriots, artisans have become statesmen, good- 
for-nothings are now heroes, misers have 
grown to be philanthropists. 

Man, missing woman's ministrations at the 
front, turns instinctively to her when oppor- 
tunity offers. Hard, fierce, unyielding to his 
fellows, he relaxes in her sheltering affection. 
He is but a boy grown. He wants to be petted, 
coddled, civilized again. 

The woman realizes he has suffered for her. 
He knows what she has sacrificed for him. 
War has brought them together, brushed aside 
false pride and hypocrisy and revealed refresh- 
ing springs of patriotism and love out of which 

204 



LOVE AND WAR 205 

flows a union of hearts and hopes that only 
those who suffer, sacrifice and endure together 
can realize. 

The man is better for having been a soldier. 
He is self-reliant, stronger in mind and body. 
Through discipline he has become punctual 
and dependable. All snobbishness, fads and 
isms are now out of him. He is more tolerant 
and charitable. He recognizes the value of 
woman's work in the home, in the hospital and 
in the munition factory. As a representa- 
tive of her country, whose uniform he wears, 
he carries himself more proudly, more up- 
rightly. 

What a soldier is to the army, a home is to 
the nation. The home is safe only so long as 
is the country. With foreign invasion, all 
values become nothing. The woman, the man, 
the home, the country are interwoven. Beyond 
lie the right to live their lives, personal liberty, 
representative government, the preservation, 
yes, even the propagation of the race. 

To check that on-coming German tide which 
threatened to wipe away everything he holds 



2o6 SOLDIERS OF THE LEGION 

dear, the soldier has fitted himself into that 
surging, bending, human wall. Behind it, 
under the shadow of death, woman works and 
waits, in a quiet that knows not peace — often 
in vain — filled with care and dread, ever striv- 
ing to be calm, she hides her heart's pain. 

Ancestors died for the liberty his flag rep- 
resents. Posterity must enjoy the same free- 
dom. So, he bridges the gap, shoulders the 
load and becomes a better lover, husband, 
father. Having learned his obligation to the 
nation, he is a better citizen for all time. One 
man's daughter loves and marries another's 
son and they become one. War tears them 
apart. He goes to the trenches. She keeps 
the home fires burning. Love holds them to- 
gether while he fights to protect and preserve, 
she works to support and maintain. 

That man is not yet whose pen can do jus- 
tice to the incomparable woman of France. 
She is a wonderful combination of heart, head 
and health. The women of colder climes love 
with their minds. The French woman with her 
heart. She gives all, regardless of conse- 
eiuences. 



LOVE AND WAR 207 

Cynical critics may have their cool sensibil- 
ities shocked at the sight of a well-turned 
ankle, crossing a muddy street. That is as near 
as they get to the sweet creature they out- 
wardly condemn, but secretly approve. She 
plays square and wants to love as well as be 
loved. She gives love and is loved in return. 
While the woman who wants something, but 
gives nothing, instils her selfishness into others. 

The selfish person loves him or herself and 
gives no love to friend, family or country. The 
unselfish woman absorbs love, and, as a flower 
its perfume, scatters fragrance. She inspires 
the noblest sentiments of loyalty and patriot- 
ism. She places herself and her best beloved 
upon the altar of her country. It is always she 
who has given most, who is willing to give all. 

Mere man notices her dainty figure, her 
happy disposition, her cheery, outspoken 
manner, her charm and goodness of heart, the 
utter absence of vulgarity and ill-temper. Her 
tears are shed in solitude. Laughter is for her 
friends. He admires her at a distance, because 
she is sheltered in the home until marriage. 
The French man must pass the family council 



2o8 SOLDIERS OF THE LEGION 

before becoming an accepted suitor. He con- 
sults them in his business ventures. His 
troubles become theirs when Mademoiselle 
changes to Madame and is his comrade as well 
as a continued sweetheart. She devotes her 
whole time and attention to him. Her clever, 
home-making instinct is combined with good 
business sense. She is a valuable partner in 
life's great enterprise. 

One of the most beautiful sights in France 
is, on a Sunday afternoon the poilu home on 
furlough, satisfied to drink a bottle or two of 
wine with his family, and rest. He did not want 
to see anyone else. But she insists he must 
see grandmother and sister-in-law, drop into 
the cafe and inquire about old comrades, then, 
enjoy a walk out into the country. 

In the gathering twilight Madame conducts 
her straggling brood home, her hands full of 
flowers, her eyes full of love — the little doll- 
like children, with long, flowing hair, romping 
nearby. The poilu has lost that dark, brood- 
ing look. That little touch of Nature and the 
woman diverted his mind from suffering and 
revived his sentiment. She sent him back to 



LOVE AND WAR 209 

the front with a smile on her lips — hiding the 
dread of her heart. 

The thought of peace is ever with her — she 
longs for it. But her conscience will not permit 
her to ask it. She thinks of the thousands of 
graves that dot the hillsides with the cross at 
their heads. She will suffer the torments of hell 
rather than that such devoted men shall have 
passed in vain. 

Their little savings have been used up. The 
clothes are worn thin. She works, slaves to 
keep the wolf from the door. She manages to 
send an occasional five-franc note to her poilu. 
She labors in munition factories, the tram- 
ways, the postal service, in the fields, replacing 
the man, while cows and dogs do the work of 
the horses, who, like the men, are on the front. 
She wears wooden shoes and pulls hand-carts 
about the street. She drives the milch cow 
that plows the land, cleans the cars and wipes 
the engines on the railroad, cooks the food and 
nurses the wounded and sick in hospitals, 
does clerical work in the commissary depart- 
ment and military bureaus — chasing out 
the fat slackers who were strutting in the 
rear. 



2IO SOLDIERS OF THE LEGION 

In spite of all, she retains her feminacy. She 
is still as alluring, as good a comrade, as cheer- 
ful and gay, outwardly, as though her body 
were not racked by fatigue, her heart not 
choked with sadness. Occasionally she forgets 
herself. The mask falls off and trouble stares 
through the windows of her soul. Catching 
that look in the eyes of my nurse once, I 
exclaimed: "Cheer up! It will be all right 
after the war." She replied: "After the war? 
There will be no 'after the war.' You'll be dead, 
I'll be dead. We shall all be dead. There'll be 
no 'after the war.' " 

Many French girls have deliberately married 
mutilated cripples to cheer and to help them 
earn their living. A beautiful young woman, 
gazing into the eyes of her soldier, said: 
"Why should we not ? They lost their legs and 
arms for us — we cannot do too much for them." 

Does the poilu appreciate this? Does he? 
What if he did lose one leg for such a woman? 
He would give the other with pleasure ! 

On furlough one evening, eating supper in 
my favorite cafe in Paris, I observed a most 
horribly repulsive object. He had once been a 



LOVE AND WAR 211 

poilu, but a shell battered his face so that it 
resembled humanity not at all. His nose was 
flattened out. His skin was mottled and dis- 
colored. A hole was where the mouth had 
been. Both eyes were gone and one arm was 
crippled. He sat and waited for food. Madame 
came from behind the counter and looked on. 
A fat boy, repelled and sickened, forgot his 
appetite and gazed, unconsciously stroking his 
stomach, fascinated by that mutilated creature. 

A very beautiful girl, whose face might pass 
her into Heaven without confession, left the 
well-dressed gormands with empty plates. 
She went and served the unfortunate one. She 
cut his meat and held his napkin that caught 
the drippings. She was so kind and gentle and 
showed such consideration, I asked her: 

''Is that the proprietor?" 

"Oh, no." 

"Your husband or sweetheart, perhaps?" 

"I have none." 

"Who was he?" 

"Un pauvre poilu." , 

Again, we were in a peasant woman's farm- 
house. She wore wooden shoes, without socks. 



212 SOLDIERS OF THE LEGION 

Just home from work in the fields, she asked 
two convalescent soldiers to help drink a bottle 
of wine, and we sat and talked with her. 

"Yes," she said, her dark eyes shining with 
pride, "my husband was a soldier, too. He is 
now a prisoner in Germany. This is his photo- 
graph. Don't you think he looks well? He 
was a machine gunner in Alsace. He did not 
run away when the Germans came, but stayed 
and worked the gun." Then, speaking of a well 
dressed little girl sitting on my Egyptian com- 
rade's knee: "He has never seen her — she is 
only two years old and thinks every soldier is 
papa." 

Hanging from the roof was a row of dried 
sausages. Pointing to them she said: "Yes, I 
send him a package every week and never for- 
get to put in a sausage. Don't you think from 
the photograph he looks well?" 

In the stable were two milch cows and a 
young heifer. Indicating the latter, she said : 
"He has not seen her, either. When he comes 
home I am going to kill her, faire le bomb, and 
ask all the family." 



LOVE AND WAR 213 

The look of pride changed into a haunted, 
pained, far-away gaze: "Oh, dear, we shall 
all be women! Except my husband and Fran- 
cois, my brother, all our men are dead — four of 
my brothers! Francois is the last. The Gov- 
ernment sent him from the front to keep the 
family alive. Don't you think France was good 
to us to do that?" 



When in hospital I met the grand dame from 
the nearby chateau. She harnessed her own 
horse and drove through the rain, on a wintry 
morning, to play the organ at early mass. She 
nursed a ward in the hospital through the day 
and returned home alone in the darkness to 
make her own supper. 

''Oh," she said, "I don't mind it, I do what I 
can. I was not brought up right or I could be 
of more use. Before the war, we had fifteen 
servants. They are now fighting. We have 
only two left, a half-wit and a cripple." 

"Do you know," she said, "I have never heard 
the English marching song 'Tipperary.' I just 
love music. In Tours the other day, I saw it 



214 SOLDIERS OF THE LEGION 

on sale, my hand was in my pocket before I 
knew. But I happened to think of our brave 
soldiers; they need so many things" — 

Noticing the troubled look on the usually 
serene countenance of a very good friend, I 
asked her: "Why those clouds?" 

"Oh," she replied, "they have just called 
Gaston to the colors. His class is summoned. 
You know how I have pinched and saved to 
bring that boy up right. Now, he must go 
and I cannot make myself feel glad. I ought 
to feel proud, but I cannot. T don't feel right. 
Every time I look at him I think of my husband 
and his one leg." 

During the early days of the war I was out 
with my landlady, whose calculating instinct 
in the matter of extra charges separated me 
from all my loose change. Going past the 
Gare d'Est Paris we noticed a crowd about a 
French soldier. He had a German helmet in 
his hand. Walking up to him, she said: 

"What is that?" 

"A German helmet, Madame." 

"Did you get that?" 



LOVE AND WAR 215 

"Yes, Madame." 

"Did you get it yourself?" 

"Certainly, Madame." 

"Here, take this, go back and get some 
more." She passed her pocketbook over to the 
poilu. 

The soldier stared; the crowd stared; but the 
soldier was a thoroughbred. Crooking his 
elbow and sticking the helmet out on his index 
finger, he bowed: 

"Will Madame give me pleasure by accepting 
the helmet?" 

Would she! Boche helmets were scarce in 
those days. Beautiful Mademoiselles in that 
crowd would have given their souls to possess 
such a treasure! Neither they nor I knew 
Madame. Her eyes looked level into those of 
the soldier as she demanded: 

"You are not a Parisian?" 

"No, Madame." 

"To what province are you going?" 

"Brittany." 

"When?" 

"At six o'clock tonight." 

"Have you a wife?" 



2i6 SOLDIERS OF THE LEGION 

"Yes, Madame/' 

''Will you do something for me?" 

"With the greatest pleasure!'' 

"Well, keep that casque in your hand until 
you arrive in Brittany. Then give it to your 
wife. She will always love you for it and your 
children will never forget such a father!" 

Walking away, Madame dropped into 
silence. I looked at her curiously. Was she 
sorry she had given away her money? Did she 
regret not accepting that highly-prized helmet, 
or was she thinking of the pleasure that gift 
would give the soldier's wife? 

Suddenly she turned and said: "Well, one 
thing is certain." 
"What is certain?" 
"You will have to pay my car fare home." 

The self-sacrifice and devotion of the woman 
permeates the atmosphere — from the lowest to 
the highest. It is contagious. It is evident, 
even to a stranger, and it restores his faith 
in human nature. She is the other half 
of the poilu. He excels in courage and forti- 
tude. She completes him with an untiring zeal. 






^ <yxhail 



R 















-;>>v>^>^u>n>, - xSMS*-. 



<4> 




CROIX DE GUERRE CITATION 



2l8 



SOLDIERS OF THE LEGION 



One beautiful, romantic feature of French 
army life is the adoption of soldiers by god- 
mothers. In one in- 
stance, a girl fifteen 
years of age, having 
enough money, adopted 
a half dozen. One of 
them proved to be a 
Senegalize, who wished 
to take the young lady 
back to Africa to com- 
plete his harem ! 



The uncertainties and 
possibilities of the situa- 
tion distract the soldier's 
mind from his real, 
staring troubles. His 
thoughts are directed in- 
to pleasant channels. 
The lady sends him little 
comforts, extra food, or 
money, and, maybe, in- 
vites him to spend his 
furlough at her resi- 
dence. She always does, 




CROIXr DE GUERRE 

Famous French War Cross 

The star denotes an indi- 
vidual citation, "John Bowe, 
an American citizen, en- 
gaged in the active army, 
who in spite of his age 
(past the limits of military 
service) has given an ex- 
pression of the most abso- 
lute devotion. Upon the 
front since the 9th of May, 
1915, he has always volun- 
teered for the dangerous 
missions and the most peril- 
ous posto." 



LOVE AND WAR 219 

if he is from invaded territory. If they prove 
congenial, friendship sometimes ripens into 
love and love into marriage. It relieves the 
lonesome isolation of the soldier, and gives 
the v^oman a direct, personal interest in the 
war. 

In the spring of 1916, I stood at the Spouters' 
Corner in Hyde Park, London, v^here Free 
Speech England allows its undesirables to ex- 
press themselves. Here the authorities classify, 
label and wisely permit each particular crank 
or freak to blow off surplus gas. If suppressed, 
it might explode or fester and become a menace. 

In French uniform, I was listening to the 
quips of a woman lecturer who really was a 
treat. "Yes," she cried, "Mr. Asquith has 
asked us poor people to economize. Instead 
of spending three shillings a day, we must only 
spend two; and our average wage is but a bob 
and a half. The high cost of living is nothing 
to the cost of high living. When Mr. Asquith 
pushes that smooth, bald head of his up through 
the Golden Gates, St. Peter will think it is a 
bladder of lard, and lard is worth two shillings 
per pound. So he will 'wait and see' if he can 



220 SOLDIERS OF THE LEGION 

use it at the price." (English call Asquith Mr. 
"Wait and See.") "Yes," she continued, "I 
try to be careful to make things last as long 
as possible. Instead of buying a new petti- 
coat, I now change the one I have wrong side 
out and make it last twice as long." 

I was absorbing these subleties when a 
French lady, dressed in velvet and furs, notic- 
ing my faded blue uniform, stepped up, excused 
herself, and asked if I were not a French sol- 
dier, and would I have a cup of tea with her? 

Thus, I found my god-mother. 

One year later, again on furlough, passing 
through London, I called on my good friend 
and was invited to accompany her to church. 
After a long prayer, so long as to excite my 
curiosity, she whispered : "I used to come here 
every Sunday and pray for you. In this seat, at 
this part of the service, I prayed you would 
come back again. I wanted you here with me 
today so I could show you to God. Now I am 
content. He will take care of you." 

Opening her prayer-book, she took out a piece 
of paper and pressed it into my hand. It was 



LOVE AND WAR 221 

an extract from a London newspaper, which 
told of my being decorated by the French Gov- 
ernment. I had not told her, and was not aware 
the news had been in the London papers. 

At the house, later, Captain Underwood, one 
of Rawlinson's invalided veterans, who was in 
the retreat from Antwerp, inquired: "Did our 
friend show you the paper?" 

"Yes." 

"Well, she bought that newspaper one night 
and came here crying out, 'See what my poilu 
has done, and he never said a word to me about 
it!' When you blew in, she made us promise 
we would not mention it till after you came 
back from church." 



CHAPTER XIX 

DEMOCRACY 

Democratic Government is the direct oppo- 
site of the German system. In America the 
individual is superior to the state, on the 
principle that man was born before the state 
w^as organized. He v^as there first, endowed 
by Nature with certain inalienable rights, 
such as life, liberty and the pursuit of happi- 
ness. 

He organized a government to make those 
rights secure with the state as servant — not 
master of his destiny. The public official is 
just the people's hired man. He is not paid to 
give, or to permit, one set of individuals to gain 
advantage. He must enforce equality, and see 
that every citizen has equal rights with equal 
opportunities. Where rights are equal, priv- 
ileges must be. Where there is inequality of 
rights there is inequality of privilege. The 
burden, shirked by the privileged class, is 
thrown upon those whose rights have been 
usurped, making their load doubly heavy. 

222 



DEMOCRACY 223 

In time of peace, preparedness is the pre- 
mium paid for war insurance. During war, 
impartial, obligatory military service is based 
on equality of men. 

The danger to democratic institutions lies 
not in the people, but in those that prey upon 
them, who, having obtained unfair privilege, 
not satisfied, continually grasp for more. We 
have seen what inequality has done to the Ger- 
mans and we do not want it in America. 

This war should sound the death knell of the 
professional politician. The trimmer, carry- 
ing water on both shoulders has schemed for 
power wdiile others worked. Afraid of losing 
votes, he did not stand up for the right. He 
goes into the discard, replaced by men of ability 
and courage. Leaders of the people will 
remove the inefficient tool of privilege. 



War is a habit breaker ? It is a series of jolts. 
The start of the war was a jolt. The day of 
peace will be another. Just as one trench is 
wiped out and another made, some day we shall 
wake to find frontiers gone, the whole map of 



224 SOLDIERS OF THE LEGION 

Europe changed, with the people ruling where 
were kings. Nothing will be the same. Old 
thoughts, ideas, beliefs, prejudices, humbugs- 
social, political and religious, will have been 
thrown into the melting pot. The bogus will 
disappear and only Truth remain. 



French Law and Equality are based on nat- 
ural justice. What the people have won are the 
bases of their liberty. The magistrates, the 
judges on duty, the legislators, are the means 
used to secure these liberties. 

They maintain that men are born and should 
live, free, with equal rights and duties, that 
social distinction should be founded, not on 
wealth or nobility, but on public benefits to the 
community, that honors should be given to the 
most able, to the most faithful, without regard 
to wealth or birth. 

Rights are, liberty, property, security and 
resistance to oppression. Liberty is a natural 
right. Force, time, circumstance shall not 
abolish it. It is not liberty to do one's own will, 
regardless of others. Individual liberty stops 
where the rights of the community commence. 



DEMOCRACY 225 

The object of political association is the preser- 
vation of rights. 

The principle of sovereignty rests in the 
people, as expressed through their representa- 
tives. The Law is the written expression of the 
people's will. It is the guarantee of rights to 
all. All citizens need the law. All are eligible 
to be honored by dispensing or enforcing its 
requirements. 

All shall pay toward the administration of 
Government, and all shall fight to maintain it. 
No man shall be stopped or delayed except by 
law. Those who issue arbitrary or unlawful 
orders shall be punished. All men are accepted 
as innocent till proved guilty. A man has a 
right to express his opinion and religious con- 
victions, provided they are not contrary to law. 

The law, on its part, does not interfere with 
dogmas or schisms, but assures to each man 
liberty of expression and action, to think, and 
speak, write and circulate, that which he be- 
lieves true. This free expression of ideas makes 
Public Opinion, which is for the advantage of 
all, not for the exclusive use of some few to 
whom it may be confided. It is the safeguard 



226 SOLDIERS OF THE LEGION 

of independence and does not make for oppres- 
sion. Public Opinion creates the Law, which, 
in turn, becomes the guarantee of the people. 

All law-makers, dispensing agents, public 
servants, must make a report of their admin- 
istration when called on for it by the people. 
The rights of men are absolutely guaranteed by 
the laws being rigorously applied, impartially. 
Those, who, elected to power, use that power 
for their own private ends, rather than for the 
good of all, are punished. 

Behind the army and the woman, are the 
Cabinet, the Senate, and the Chamber of 
Deputies — the leaders of thought and action. 
The people, as thus represented, are the 
supreme power, the army is subordinate. 
France is a people with an army. Germany 
is an army with a people. Democratic France 
insists on equality, even in military life. It 
will not permit an officer to grant himself, or 
his friends, furloughs which are denied private 
soldiers. As the private soldier may be court- 
martialed for his sins, so may the general offi- 
cer, who, through drunkenness, inefficiency or 
treachery, sacrifices his men or betrays the 



DEMOCRACY 227 

people. He is not whitewashed, or taken from 
the front and given an appointment in the 
rear — kicked upstairs instead of down. He is 
given his sentence and compelled to serve it. 

No brutal or surly officer can chain a private 
soldier to an artillery wagon like a dog. No 
drunken officer can hurl insults at him. Hang- 
ing over the heads of all/ like the suspended 
sword of Damocles, is French equality, which 
insists on results, not excuses. It falls on bru- 
tality and inefficiency. Consequently, French 
officers are invariably gentlemen and treat their 
men as such. 

Every country has its slackers, its pacifists, 
its millionaires, its religious fanatics, who do 
not scruple to use their isms, wealth and special 
privilege to undermine the fabric of a govern- 
ment which compels them to bear their share 
of duty. Consequently, civilian leaders must be 
strong, determined, resolute men, who swerve 
not from the good ahead, who will neither tol- 
erate special pleadings nor permit incapacity. 
They know that, prevented by continually 
changing officers, graft conditions cannot be- 
come established, also, that all around expe- 
rience begets perfection. 



228 SOLDIERS OF THE LEGION 

If this war has demonstrated any one thing, 
it is that those ''born to rule'' have not the 
capacity to do so. FilHng places of public 
trust, through accident of wealth, or birth, 
or political expediency, at the outbreak of hos- 
tilities — that cunning, calculating fraud on 
democracy, the political machine — appointed 
or elected to serve the people, scheming for 
partizan advantage, really blocked national 
effort and actually, through inaction and 
obstruction, aided the enemy. 

Incapable of mastering a new set of cir- 
cumstances, persisting in playing the new game 
according to the old rules, those appointed 
failed. Others took up the burden. From the 
ranks of men rose the leaders of thought and 
action, stepping, climbing, pushing over the 
incompetents of title, money and birth, who, 
unable to save themselves, now accept salva- 
tion from those whom they have hated, de- 
spised, oppressed. 

Advancing in spite of obstacles — the more 
opposition, the better, the man worthy to lead, 
clarified by adversity, true to form, takes the 
public into his confidence, talking, not glitter- 



DEMOCRACY 229 

ing generalities, but in concrete truths, Lloyd 
George of England, Hughes of Australia, 
Briand, Clemenceau and Viviani of France, 
Kerensky of Russia, Veneviolis of Greece, Sam 
Hughes of Canada, Teddy Roosevelt and 
Woodrow Wilson of America, strong, upright 
and brave men, who scorn the bended knee and 
itching palm, are hated by the professional 
politician and the piratical profiteer. 

Every man, who has courage to stand for the 
right and denounce the wrong, becomes a mark 
for bricks thrown at his devoted head — by 
shirkers who won't protect their own — by 
rascals who have been looting the public — and 
by traitors who would betray their country. 
These leaders have terrific opposition in 
their fight against systematized, anti-national 
organizations. It is the duty of every citizen, 
in times of national danger, to support the Gov- 
ernment, regardless of party. 

Politics should now be adjourned in fact and 
in earnest. Remember Abraham Lincoln's, 
''This is a very critical period in the life of the 
nation. It is no time to consider mere party 
issues." 



CHAPTER XX 

AUTOCRACY 

German Government is founded on the prin- 
ciple that the State is superior to the individual. 
Being superior, it is not subject to that code of 
honor, that respect for decency, v^hich binds 
men of different races, religions and countries 
and distinguishes man from the brute. 

The Reichstag of Germany is supposed to be 
the popular assembly. In reality, it is the bul- 
wark of v^ealth. Under this system, man be- 
longs to property, not property to man. Voters, 
who have paid one-third of the total income 
tax, elect one-third of the electors, who choose 
one-third of the Reichstag. Voters who pay 
the next third do likewise, and the same system 
applies to the last third. In 1908, 293,000 voters 
chose the first third; 1,065,240 selected the sec- 
ond, and 6,324,079 elected the last third. 
Thus, 4 per cent of the voters elected the first 
third, 14 per cent the second, and the last third, 
82 per cent — all the poor people were thrown 

230 



AUTOCRACY 231 

together and controlled by the other two- 
thirds, or 18 per cent. 

In free countries, the State exists for the 
benefit of the individual. In Germany, the 
individual lives exclusively for the State. He 
has no right to free speech, free thought, the 
pursuit of happiness, nor even to existence 
itself, unless the Kaiser sees it to his advantage 
to grant, or permit, those luxuries. 

In case a popular measure slipped through 
the Reichstag, it would have to be voted upon 
by the Bundesrath — a secret upper house ap- 
pointed by the princes — not the people, of each 
separate State of the German Empire. Each 
State votes as a unit. No amendment can pass 
the Bundesrath if fourteen out of the sixty- 
one votes are cast against it. The Kaiser, rep- 
resenting Prussia, holds seventeen votes, and 
three for Alsace-Lorraine. So, the individual 
German voter's work is carefully nullified by 
this system, over which he has no control. He 
is outvoted by wealth in the Reichstag. The 
Reichstag is outvoted by the aristocracy of the 
Bundesrath. This, in turn, is outvoted by the 
Autocracy of the Kaiser. 



232 SOLDIERS OF THE LEGION 

Autocracy, aristocracy and wealth compose 
the Board of Strategy and officer the army. 
The army is superior to the Reichstag. It is 
outside of and above the law, within the coiin- 
try but not responsible to it. It is not an army 
of the people, it is the Kaiser's army. 



So the Bundesrath, the Reichstag, the Board 
of Strategy, the controlled newspapers and 
political professors, extending up from the 
throneroom to the kindergarten, are meshes in 
the net that entangles man whose rights they 
have usurped. Through that system, the child 
is caught in infancy, given Kultur with 
mother's milk, then taught to spy upon family 
and neighbors; he listens to political professors 
at school, political parsons at church. The 
more he informs the further he advances, till 
he reaches the army, where docility and obe- 
dience and respect for authority are instilled 
into him till he can have neither original ideas 
nor independent thought. 



Consider the German soldier's ideal as de- 
scribed in the Portland Oregoniah : 



AUTOCRACY 233 

"In their effort to Germanize Finland the 
Germans publish a newspaper in that country 
which commends to the Finns the 'German 
Soldiers' Ideal/ 

'Between the soldier and his superior officer/ 
this article reads, 'there yawns a tremendous 
gulf. The latter is always right, the former 
never. The duty of a soldier is to obey blindly, 
without reflection. He himself can have no will 
or wish of his own.' He 'must not speak, he 
must not even think.' Then comes this deifica- 
tion of the officer: 

'The recruit is not a man; he is merely 
destined to become a man under the command 
of his superior officer. * * * He must first lie 
mother naked in the dust and feel about his head 
the whistle of his officer's knout; only after 
weeks and months does his superior officer, by 
his grace and help, raise him up out of the dust, 
wash him, clothe him and make of him a man 
and a soldier. 

* * * The image of the superior officer must 
bear not the slightest flaw; it is perfection; if 
the soldier imagines that he perceives a fault in 



234 SOLDIERS OF THE LEGION 

him, this is merely a proof of the incompetence 
and incapacity of his own facuhies. * * * The 
officer is the soldier's Lord God. * * * The 
soldier's God is never satisfied, he never returns 
thanks even for the best of v^ork, but his pun- 
ishment for transgression and disobedience is 
cruel. For in the hands of the superior officer 
are the keys of hell upon earth.' 

There follows a description of the soldier's 
hell, 'filled with wailing and gnashing of teeth, 
full of evilsmelling filth,' from which the su- 
perior officer can help him up again 'only when 
he has plunged about in it sufficiently.' Then it 
will have 'purged the wretched fellow of his 
sins, rooted out the passionate, mutinous spirit 
of his own will' and 'transformed him into wax 
soft and pure, which the superior officer can 
knead to his heart's delight until he pro- 
duces that masterpiece, a proper, thorough and 
obedient soldier.' " 



He is told he is under no obligation to observe 
elementary decency, that there is no honor 
among men or nations. He is taught to hate, 
not to love, to depend on might, not right, and 



AUTOCRACY 235 

to work for war instead of peace. The French, 
the British, the Americans are only human, but 
the good Kaiser is divine, and the German is 
a super-man, chosen by God to rule the world. 
The "good Kaiser" was chosen by God to dom- 
inate the German race, who are to conquer the 
world, and the German super-man, under the 
Kaiser, is to obtain that domination through 
war. 

A woman who has compassion in her soul 
for the unfortunate has no right to live. Pity 
is not German. Miss Cavell had pity in her 
heart, even for German wounded, for homeless 
Belgians. So she was executed. 

The wounded in hospital ships were tor- 
pedoed without warning, murdered by unseen 
hands reaching out from the darkness, and the 
perpetrators were promoted for gallantry. 

After robbing and burning the towns of 
northern France and Belgium they turned 
around and demanded an indemnity, having 
picked the victim's pocket, they asked for his 
money. They robbed the priceless libraries to 
preserve the books. They drove the van- 



236 SOLDIERS OF THE LEGION 

quished victims into slavery to protect them 
from laziness, and raped woman to save her 
virginity. The French, English or American 
who rapes a woman, desecrates a church, or 
murders innocent women and children, knows 
he commits a crime — the German lacks such 
consciousness. 

So, unchecked, uncontrolled, responsible to 
no one, they are wild beasts at large. Backed 
by an army of 11,000,000 men, they tried to 
overwhelm peace-loving Europe. They over- 
ran Luxemburg. They turned the garden of 
France into a desert. They could see in Bel- 
gium only the nearest road to France. Sub- 
ject to no restraint, responsible to no one, their 
passion for power, for money, for lust, recog- 
nized no authority, contract, nor law. 

Their ungovernable tempers become in- 
flamed at the slightest opposition and they do 
not scruple to commit the most odious crimes 
upon the unfortunate people in their power. 
Repression, terrorism, theft, rape and murder 
are elevated into virtues and rewarded with 
honors. By brute force they override decency, 
freedom, arbitration and liberty. Murderers 



AUTOCRACY 237 

at bay, they fight to keep from being exe- 
cuted. 

And, as the German people were compelled 
to work for them in time of peace, now they 
must die for them. 

Such is the German Government. 



At The Hague Convention, 1907, the follow- 
ing were agreed to and signed by Germany. 

ARTICLE 24. 'Tt is forbidden to kill or wound 
an enemy who has dropped his arms or has no means 
of defense, and who surrenders at discretion." 

ARTICLE 46. "The honor and the rights of the 
people, the lives of the family, the private property 
must be respected." 



"August 23, 1914, at Gomery, Belgium, a Ger- 
man patrol entered the ambulance, fired upon 
the wounded, killed the doctor and shot the 
stretcher bearers.'' Part of a deposition of Dr. 
Simon, in Red Cross Service, 10th Region. 

"The night of the 22nd (August, 1914), I 
found in the woods at 150 yards to the north 
of the crossroads, formed by the meeting of 



238 SOLDIERS OF THE LEGION 

the large trench of Colonne with the road of 
Vaux de Palaneix to St. Remy, the bodies of 
French prisoners shot by the Germans. I saw 
thirty soldiers who had been gathered together 
in a little space, for the most part lying down, 
a few on their knees, and all mutilated the same 
way by being shot in the eye." Affidavit of a 
captain of the 288th Infantry. 

"We saw there an execution squad. Before 
it lay, on the slope of the side of the road, fifty 
bodies of French prisoners who had just been 
shot. We approached and saw one hap-less Red 
Cross man who had not been spared. A non- 
commissioned officer was finishing off with 
revolver shots any who still moved. He gave 
us, in German, the order to point out to him 
those of our men who still breathed." Report 
of Dr. Chou, who was captured and repatriated. 
He related the above to a Danish physician. Dr. 
De Christmas. 

''I saw a British prisoner killed by a sentry 
at point blank range, because he did not stop 
at the command. Another British soldier was 
shot by a sentry with whom he had a discus- 
sion. The shot broke his jaw; he died next 



AUTOCRACY 239 

day/' Report of Sergt. Major Le Bihran, nar- 
rating conditions at Gottingen. 

The French Government has the note book 
of a German soldier, Albert Delfosse of the 
111th Infantry of the 14th Reserve Corps. 'In 
the forest near St. Remy, on the 4th or 5th of 
September, I encountered a very fine cow and 
calf, dead, and again, the bodies of French men, 
fearfully mutilated." 

Order of the Day, issued by General Stenger 
near Thiaville, Meurthe and Moselle, August 
26, 1914: 

"After today we will not make any prisoners; 
all the prisoners are to be killed; the wounded, 
with arms or without arms, to be killed; the 
prisoners already gathered in crowds are to be 
killed; behind us there must not remain any 
living enemy." 

Signed, 

The Lieutenant commanding the Company, 

STOV. 
The Colonel commanding the Regiment, 

NEUBAUER. 
The General commanding the Brigade, 

STENGER. 



240 SOLDIERS OF THE LEGION 

General Stenger was in charge of the 58th 
Brigade, composed of the 112th and 142nd Ba- 
varian Infantry. Thirty soldiers of these regi- 
ments, now prisoners, have made affidavits to 
this, signed with their own names, which are 
in the possession of the French Government. 

The attack of September 25, 1915, brought 
the French within two kilometers of Somme-py. 
Lying in the trenches under the furious bom- 
bardment, we considered the diary which was 
found on the German soldier, Hassemer, of 
the 8th Army Corps, when they captured the 
town in 1914: "Horrible carnage; the villages 
totally burned; the French thrown into the 
burning houses; the civilians burned with all 
the others." 

I have many times been at St. Maurice, 
Meurthe and Moselle, where I saw and pon- 
dered over, fire-blackened houses and somber- 
faced, solitary women. The tall chimney of 
a demolished manufacturing plant stands guard 
over desolation. From the diary of a Bavarian 
soldier of the German army, evidence written 
by the perpetrators, the following is quoted: 
"The village of St. Maurice was encircled, the 



AUTOCRACY 241 

soldiers advanced at one yard apart, through 
which line nobody could get. Afterward the 
Uhlans started the fire, house by house. 
Neither man, nor woman, nor child could get 
away. They were permitted to take out the 
cattle because that was a drawing out method. 
Those that risked to run away were killed by 
rifle shot. All those that were found in the 
village were burned with it." 

In the first lot of exchanged EngHsh prison- 
ers returned from Germany was a Gloucester 
man shot in his jaws, his teeth blackened and 
broken. Pointing to where his chin had been, 
he told me: 'That is what they did to me — 
what they did after I was taken prisoner and 
was wounded in four places and unable to 
move. A Boche came along, put his rifle to my 
face and pulled the trigger. But that wasn't 
anything to what they did to my comrade. He 
was lying in his blanket seriously wounded, 
and a Boche ran a bayonet into him sixteen 
times before he died." 

In the clearing house hospital at Lyons I 
saw two old comrades meet, one wounded, 
from the front, the other from a German prison 



242 SOLDIERS OF THE LEGION 

camp. ''Yes/' said the latter, with a peculiar, 
vacant expression in his eye. "Yes, I was cru- 
cified. I was hung from a beam in the middle 
of the camp for two hours, hands tied together 
over my head, in the form of a cross, body hang- 
ing down till my feet were eighteen inches 
above the ground." 

''Is that true?" I demanded. 

"True, look at these arms. Ask those com- 
rades over there. I swear it, I will write it 
down for you.'' 

He wrote the above statement and signed 
his name, Gandit, Pierre, 19th Infantry. 

August 28, 1914. "The French soldiers who 
were captured were led away. Those seriously 
wounded, in the head or lungs, etc., who could 
not get up, were put out of their misery, accord- 
ing to orders, by another shot." An extract 
from the diary of a German soldier, Fahlen- 
stein, 34th Fusiliers II Army. The original 
is in the hands of the French Government. 

At Ethe, finding twenty wounded men 
stretched out in a shed, unable to move, they 
burned the shed and roasted them alive. 



AUTOCRACY 243 

At Gomery a temporary, first aid hospital 
was captured. A Boche sergeant and a group 
of soldiers rushed in, assaulted the doctor in 
charge and burned the building. The wounded 
men, some of whom had had amputations that 
same morning, maddened by the flames, 
jumped out of the windows into the garden, 
where they were bayoneted by the waiting 
fiends. Dr. De Charette, Lieutenant Jeanin 
and about one hundred and twenty wounded 
French officers and men were butchered. This 
hospital was under command of Dr. Sedillat. 

''The Russians were treated like beasts, but 
among those emaciated, ragged creatures, the 
most miserable of all, the most cruelly used 
of all are the British. They were always the 
last and the worst served. If ill, they were 
always the least cared for. When they had no 
more clothing to sell to buy food, they came 
to the hospital utterly exhausted, stark naked, 
and died of hunger. It was a sight to pierce 
the heart." Report of Dr. Monsaingeon, of the 
French Medical Service, on conditions at Gust- 
rout in 1914 and 1915. Confirmation furnished 
the French Foreign Officers and printed in 
"Treatment of French Prisoners in Germanv." 



244 SOLDIERS OF THE LEGION 

The following letter, written by Officer 
Klent, 1st Company, 154th German Infantry 
Regiment, was published in the "J^^^^sches 
Tageblatt," Harmonville, September 24, 1914: 
''We reached a little hollow in the ground, 
where many red breeches, killed and wounded, 
were lying. We bayoneted some of the 
wounded and smashed in the skulls of others. 
Nearby I heard a singular crushing sound. It 
was caused by the blows one of our 154th men 
was raining on the bald skull of a Frenchman. 
Our adversaries had fought bravely, but, 
whether slightly or severely wounded, our 
brave Fusiliers spared our country the expense 
of having to nurse so many enemies." 



CHAPTER XXI 

THEIR CRIMES 

We must make it absolutely impossible for 
the wild beast to break out again. Our living 
should know the crimes committed in the name 
of Kultur, so they can establish needed precau- 
tions against their recurrence. To our mar- 
tyred dead, we have a sacred duty, that of 
Remembrance. 

A little book was published at Nancy under 
the patronage of the Prefect of Meurthe, G. 
Simon, Mayor of Nancy, and G. Keller of Lune- 
ville, aided by the Mayors of the following 
towns, located at or near the battle front: Bel- 
fort, Epinal, Nancy, Bar-le-Duc, Chalons, 
Chateau-Thierry, Nelien, Beauvais, Baccarat, 
Luneville, Gerberviller, Nomeny, Pont-a-Mous- 
son, Verdun, Clermont, Semaise, Rheims, Sen- 
lis, Albert. 

It is a record of robbery, rape, repression and 
murder that will taint the German blood for 
generations, from Prince Eitel Fritz, the son 
of the Kaiser, who looted the Chateau Brierry 

245 



246 



SOLDIERS OF THE LEGION 



j*T MltlTAiHB 



OENTIE SPEL.a rK EEFORME- LYON 



SOUS-OFFIGIEB, ClPORiL ou BEIGADIER, SOLDAT 



COmi DE GONVALESGEiVGE 




A rexpjiatjori de son conge, le (>oiieur devra avoir rejoini son 








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FRENCH FURLOUGH (Front) 
This furlough, in spite of its "sans prolongation," has 
been extended twice — for 3 months each time, since it became 
effective, September, 1917. Trench rheumatism and 2 years' 
hard fighting having seriously impaired Mr. Bowe, Washing- 
ton has now written Paris, asking for his discharge for disa- 
bility. France hardly sends a soldier home until he is be- 



THEIR CRIMES 



247 



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FRENCH FURLOUGH (Back) 

lieved worth more there than at the front. "Private Jack" 
says he will not resume business till the war is over. He 
can probably do more good in America than under German 
fire — his writings and speeches must replace the rifle and 
grenades. With Jeanne d'Arc, he declares, "You can enchain 
me, but you cannot enchain the fortunes of France." 



248 SOLDIERS OF THE LEGION 

Avocourt, down to the under officers, who 
searched private residences, which, open to the 
captors, it was forbidden to lock. It is a record 
of shame and dishonor, of brutal force, with- 
out a saving element of mercy. They struck 
their helpless victims singly, in groups, in 
hecatombs. 

Individually, they followed the systematic 
teaching of organized butchery. The world 
knows about the murder of Miss Cavell, the 
Red Cross nurse; of Eugene Jacquet, the Free- 
mason; of Captain Fryatt, the civilian sea-cap- 
tain. This little book records the death of 
many others, innocent martyrs to the same 
glorious cause. 



At Foret, the public school teacher refused to 
tread the French flag underfoot and was shot. 

At Schaffen, A. Willem was burned alive, two 
others were interred alive. Madame Luykx 
and daughter, twelve years of age, refuging 
together in a cave, were shot. J. Reynolds and 
his nephew of ten years were shot, out in the 
street. 



THEIR CRIMES 249 

At Sompuis, an old man, Jacquimin, 70 years 
of age, was tied to his bed by an officer and left 
there three days. He died shortly after his 
deliverance. 

At Monceau-Sur-Sambre, they shut up the 
two brothers S. in a shed and burned them alive. 

At Nomeny, M. Adam was thrown alive into 
the fire, then shot at with rifles and Mme. 
Cousine, after being shot, was thrown into the 
fire and roasted. 

At Maixe, M. Demange, wounded in both 
knees, fell helpless in his house, and they set 
fire to it. 

At Triaucourt, Mme. Maupoix, 75 years old, 
was kicked to death because not enough loot 
was found in her closet. 

At Conis, Madame Dalissier, 7Z years, who 
declared she had no money, was shot through 
the body fifteen times. 

At Rouyes, a farmer refused to tell where he 
got some French military clothes. An officer 
shot him twice. 



250 SOLDIERS OF THE LEGION 

At Crezancy, M. Le Saint, 18 years of age, 
was killed by an officer because some day he 
would be a soldier. 

At Embermeuil, Mme. Masson was shot be- 
cause her servant, an idiot, gave a wrong direc- 
tion. The madame, pregnant, was made to sit 
on a chair while they executed her. 

At Ethe, one hundred and ninety-seven were 
executed, among them two priests, who were 
shot because they were accused of hiding arms. 

At Marqueglise, a superior officer stopped 
four young boys, and, saying that the Belgians 
were dirty people, he shot each one in succes- 
sion. One was killed outright. 

At Pin, the Uhlans met two young boys, 
whom they tied to their horses, then urged 
them to a gallop. Some kilometers away, the 
bodies were found, the skin worn away from 
the knees, one with throat cut, both with many 
bullet holes through the head. 

At Sermaize, the farmer Brocard and his son 
were arrested. His wife and daughter-in-law 



THEIR CRIMES 251 

were thrown into a near-by river. Four hours 
later, the men were set at liberty and found the 
two bodies of the women in the water, with 
several bullet holes in their heads. 

At Aerschot, the priest had hung a cross in 
front of the church. He was tied, hands and 
feet, the inhabitants ordered to march past and 
urinate on him. They then shot him and threw 
the body into the canal. A group of seventy- 
eight men, tied three together, were taken into 
the country, assaulted en route, and shot at and 
killed the following morning. 

At Monchy-Humieres, an officer heard the 
word "Prussians" spoken. He ordered three 
dragoons to fire into the group, one was killed, 
two wounded, one of them was a little girl of 
four years. 

At Hermeuil, while looting the town, the 
inhabitants were confined in a church. Mme. 
Winger and her three servants, arriving late, 
the captain, monocle in his eye, ordered the 
soldiers to fire. The four were killed. 

At Sommeiles, while the town was being 
burned, the Dame X. with her four children. 



252 SOLDIERS OF THE LEGION 

sought refuge in a cave with her neighbor, 
Adnot, and his wife. Some days later, the 
French troops, recapturing the town, found 
the seven bodies, horribly mutilated, lying in 
a sea of blood. The Dame had her right arm 
severed from the body, a young girl, eleven 
years of age, had one foot cut off, the little boy, 
five years old, had his throat cut. 

At Louveigne, a number of civilians took 
refuge in a blacksmith shop. In the afternoon 
the Germans opened the door, chased out the 
victims, and as they ran out shot them down 
like so many rabbits. Seventeen bodies were 
left lying on the plain. 

At Senlis, the mayor of the town and six of 
the city council were shot to death. 

At Coulommiers, a husband and two children 
testified to the rape of the mother of the family. 

At Melen-Labouche, Marguerite Weras was 
outraged by twenty German soldiers before she 
was shot, in sight of her father and mother. 

At Louppy le Chateau, it is the grandmother 
who is violated, and, in the same town, a mother 



THEIR CRIMES 253 

and two daughters, thirteen and eight years 
old, were also victims of German savagery. 

At Nimy, little Irma G., in six hours, was 
done to death. Her father, going to her aid, 
was shot, her mother, seriously wounded. 

At Handzaerne, the mayor, going to the aid 
of his daughter, was shot. 

At St. Mary's Pass, two sergeants of the 
31st Alpines were found with their throats cut. 
Their bayonets were thrust into their mouths. 

At Remereville, Lieutenant Toussant, lying 
wounded on the battlefield, was jabbed with 
bayonets by all the Germans who passed him. 
The body was punctured with wounds from the 
feet to the head. 

At Audrigny, a German lieutenant met a 
Red Cross ambulance, carrying ten wounded 
men. He deployed his men and fired two 
rounds into the vehicle. 

At Bonville, in a barn, a German officer shot 
in the eye nine wounded French soldiers, who, 
lying stretched out, were unable to move. 



254 SOLDIERS OF THE LEGION 

At Montigny le Titcul, the Germans dis- 
covered M. Vidal dressing the wounds of a 
French soldier, L. Sohier, who was shot in the 
head. M. Vidal was shot at sight, then the 
wounded man was killed. 

At Nary, they compelled twenty-five women 
to march parallel with them as a shield against 
the French fire. 

At Malinas, six German soldiers, who had 
captured five young girls, placed the girls in 
a circle about them when attacked. 

At Hongaerdi, they killed the priest. 

At Erpe, the Germans forced thirty civilians, 
one only thirteen years old, to march ahead, 
while, hidden among the crowd, were German 
soldiers and a machine gun. 

At Ouen-Sur-Morin, on Sept. 7, 1914, the 
Death's Head Huzzars, the Crown Prince's 
favorite regiment, drove all the civilians into 
the Chateau, then, sheltered by those innocents, 
they told the English, "Shoot away." 



THEIR CRIMES 255 

At Parchim, where 2,000 civilians, French 
prisoners, were interned, two prisoners, hun- 
gry, demanding food, were clubbed to death 
with the butt end of rifles, while the young- 
daughter of one of them was immediately given 
eight days "mis au poteau." 

At Gerberviller, at the home of Lingenheld, 
they searched for his son, a stretcher bearer of 
the Red Cross, tied his hands, led him into the 
street and shot him down. Then they poured 
oil on the body and roasted it. Then the father, 
of 70 years, was executed, along with fourteen 
other old men. More than fifty were martyred 
in this commune alone. 

Sister Julia, Superior of the Hospital Ger- 
berviller, reports : "To break into the taber- 
nacle of the Church of Gerberviller, the enemy 
fired many shots around the lock, the interior 
of the ciborium was also perforated." 

Statement of Mile. — , tried and acquitted for 
the murder of her infant, in Paris. 

"At Gerberviller, I worked in the hospital. 
Going to the church one night, three German 
hospital stewards caught and assaulted me. I 



256 SOLDIERS OF THE LEGION 

did not understand their language. I thought 
they were men. I did not know they were 
brutes." 

''Yes, I killed the child; I could not bear to 
feel myself responsible for bringing anything 
into the world made by the workings of a Ger- 
man." 

In Belgium alone, more than 20,000 homes 
have been pillaged and burned. More than 
5,000 civilians, mostly old men, women and 
children, with fifty priests and one hundred 
and eighty-seven doctors, have been murdered. 

At Timines, 400 civilians were murdered. 

At Dinant, more than 600 were martyred, 
among them seventy-one women, 34 old men, 
more than 70 years of age, six children of from 
five to six years of age, eleven children less than 
five years. The victims were placed in two 
ranks, the first kneeling, the second standing, 
then shot. 



The foregoing statements, vouched for by 
the most responsible representative men in and 
near the invaded district, show some of the cases 
continually being brought to public attention. 



THEIR CRIMES 257 

This evidence is accumulative, convincing, 
damning proof, it is furnished by the bodies of 
the victims, by neighbor eye witnesses, by de- 
vastated homes, and by mutilated w^recks, who 
survived — some being recaptured by French 
troops, others, repatriated as useless, sent back 
to France via Switzerland. 

FROM A GERMAN DIARY 

''The natives fled from the village. It was 
horrible. There was clotted blood on the 
beards, and the faces we saw were terrible to 
behold. The dead — about sixty — were at once 
buried; among them were many old women, 
some old men and a half-delivered woman, aw- 
ful to see. Three children had clasped each 
other and died thus. The altar and vault of the 
church were shattered. They had a telephone 
there to communicate with the enemy. This 
morning, Sept. 2, all the survivors were ex- 
pelled, and I saw four little boys carrying a 
cradle with a baby five or six months old in it, 
on two sticks — all this was terrible to behold. 
Shot after shot, salvo after salvo — chickens, 
etc. all killed. I saw a mother with her two chil- 
dren, one had a great wound in the head and 
had lost an eye.'' 



258 SOLDIERS OF THE LEGION 

These, and other crimes, are corroborated in 
the four reports of the French Inquiry, in ''Vio- 
lations of International Law," published by or- 
der of the French Foreign Minister, by the 
twenty-two reports of the Belgian Commis- 
sion, the reports of a German book published 
May 15, 1915, diaries and note books found on 
bodies of dead German soldiers, wounded men 
and prisoners. They are books of horror, but, 
books of truth, glaring evidence of murdered 
men, misused women, ruined homes. Much of 
them was actually furnished by perpetrators of 
the deeds. Comments are unnecessary, words 
inadequate, cold print fails. 



L' ENVOI 

Into Europe's seething cauldron of blood and 
tears, American youth have been cast. 

Patriotism and justice resolutely demand 
that the Devil incarnate, who stirs his awful 
mess of ghoulhash, shall perish. 

Our national peril, the whole earth's dire 
need, assembling the Country's selected young 
manhood, now make this a United States in fact 
— probably, for the first time since Washington 
and Valley Forge. 

I have tried to make you see war as I know 
it, war with no footballs, portable bath tubs, vic- 
trolas nor Red Triangle Huts. Such blessings 
are God-sends — more power to His messen- 
gers ! 

I met a company of the 18th U. S. Engineers 
swinging along the tree-fringed macadamized 
highway toward the front. Clean-cut, well 
dressed, smooth-shaven, happy and gay. it was 

259 



26o 



SOLDIERS OF THE LEGION 




L'ENVOI 261 

a joy to see them. It made a man proud to 
belong to the same race. They yelled a greet- 
ing in broken French to the dirty Poilu, who re- 
sponded in the latest American slang. They 
marched away singing into the darkness, the 
words resounding loud or low, as different sec- 
tions took up the tune : 

"Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the 

Lord: 
He is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of 

w^rath are stored; 
He hath loosed the fateful lightning of His terrible 

swift sword, 
His truth is marching on." 

Yes, Julia Ward Howe's hymn is quite right. 
It sounds the keynote of America's part in this 
world's greatest tragedy of all history. 

They returned a month later, boys no longer, 
but men who had been through the fire and 
stood up to the grief. Tired, weary, chins 
pressed forward, hands on the straps to permit 
free heart action, dust swirled about the mov- 
ing feet, climbed, settled on the stubbly, un- 
shaven faces, streaked with perspiration, rose 
and formed an aura about the knapsacks which 
bobbed up and down like buoys on the sea. 



262 SOLDIERS OF THE LEGION 

From behind the dust-topped bristles flashed 
the steely eyes of the Soldier. Such eyes ! Not 
the calm, contemplative eyes of the sissy, but 
strong, fierce, exultant eyes of the man who has 
fought, and won. 

One month changed him. The longer he is 
in the Army the greater the growth. He has 
realized that union is strength, that soldiers by 
acting together gain the objective, bring the 
victory. He is learning that, as Nicholas Mur- 
ray Butler puts it, "The international mind is 
nothing else than the habit of thinking of for- 
eign relations and business, and that habit of 
dealing with them, which regard the several na- 
tions of the civilized world as friendly and co- 
operating equals in aiding the progress of civili- 
zation, in developing commerce and industry, 
and in spreading enlightenment and culture 
throughout the world." 

He wondered at the confidence of the French 
Poilu, and discovered that behind that soldier is 
every man, woman and child, every ounce of 
energy, every cent of money in France. His 
mind returned to his native land across the 
sea. True the Government is behind him — 
but all the people are not back of the Govern- 



L'ENVOI 263 

ment. The International Socialist is still bent 
on destruction, and working for Germany, the 
pro-German is hiding his galvanized American- 
ism behind Red Cross and Liberty Loan but- 
tons, the chatauquaized pacifist, bemoaning this 
"terrible bloodshed,'' wanted to dig himself 
into a hole, there, to escape the U. S. draft. 
The foreign-language minister — exempted 
from military service, the only privileged class 
in America — is still talking denominationalism 
instead of patriotism. The Big Business banker, 
a deacon in church, prays with the Methodist 
sisters, works hand in glove with monopoHsts 
who have preyed upon the people, then offers 5 
in competition with Government 4^4 per cent. 
He wants to make a profit for himself, rather 
than have the Government use the money to 
feed and clothe the soldiers on the front. The 
prohibitionists, not satisfied with war-time pro- 
hibition, with the control of liquor through the 
Food Administration, further embarrass the 
Government by agitating minor issues when 
every ounce of energy is needed to win the war.* 
They know the soldier will come back a broader 

*Mr. Bowe and his collaborator failed to agree, only on 
this point. For it, I must disclaim any responsibility, be- 
lieving that while the world is in its present fluidity it can 
best be, and should be, re-formed. — MacG. 



264 SOLDIERS OF THE LEGION 

and wiser man, and they want to slip this legis- 
lation over in his absence. Then there is the 
political lawyer who thrives on trouble, gets fat 
on disaster, whose capital is wind, surplus hot 
air, whose services are on sale for cash. Usu- 
ally a trimmer who crawled on his stomach for 
favors, he pledged himself in advance for votes. 
Backed by special interests, these decoys play 
upon the passions and prejudices of men, they 
array class against class, religion against relig- 
ion, section against section. Elected by the peo- 
ple, they betray them. The people in turn or- 
ganize for protection, then the hypocrites wrap 
the robes of loyalty about themselves, rush to 
the head of the procession, climb the band wag- 
on, seize the bass drum, and cry out: ''All 
those who don't follow are drunken, dishonest 
or disloyal." 



Beclouding the main issue — America's dan- 
ger — scheming for power while soldiers die, 
too busy serving themselves, they have not 
time to serve the nation, they do not see that 
their day is past and that they must give way 
to the men who will win the war — the soldier, 
the laborer, the producer. 



L'ENVOI 265 

The living soldier is part of the Government, 
he sees through and past the self-seeking tool 
or profiteer. He is not fooled by the political 
machine. He is no longer Republican, Socialist 
or Prohibitionist — he is American. He is no 
longer Baptist, Methodist or Mormon — his re- 
ligion is confined to Right and Wrong. 



While watching a film of trench-fighting, in 
"The German Curse in Russia," a v^eek ago, it 
startled me to hear an electric orchestra play 
the Hallelujah Chorus: 

"Hallelujah! For the Lord God 
Omnipotent Reigneth. 

The kingdom of this world has become 
the kingdom of our Lord, and of his Christ ; 
and He shall reign forever and ever and ever, 

King of Kings and Lord of Lords, 
Hallelujah!" 

But, that stirring shout of Joy is Truth. On 
the front, wt soldiers discover a something in- 
side that is larger, greater, stronger than our 
fear — a Belief that there is something more last- 
ing than human life. We learn that we are 



266 SOLDIERS OF THE LEGION 

Souls with bodies, instead of mere mortals of 
passion and appetite. We begin to realize that 
the Day's Work is building tomorrow's More 
Stately Mansion. 

Young men in our Expeditionary Force and 
Training Camps learn the value of physical fit- 
ness and clean morals as they were not taught 
at home. They will help us "read aright that 
most significant world-reconstruction message, 
trench etched with the outraged blood of her 
choicest on agonized Europe's face, indelibly 
engraved with the sacrificial lives of innumer- 
able sons of man — 'Ye must be born again!' "* 

Those not listed as travelers on that longer 
journey, returning, will remind us that the Fa- 
ther of his Country, in a farewell to Congress, 
admonished, ''Let us, with caution indulge the 
supposition that morality can be maintained 
without religion. Whatever may be conceded 
to the influence of refined education, reason and 
experience both forbid us to expect that na- 
tional morality can prevail in exclusion of re- 
ligious principle!" 



* "Everybody's Business," Charles L. MacGregor, published 
in 1916 by The Roycrofters, East Aurora, N. Y. 



L'ENVOI 267 

They will tell us their personal experience of 
that great, practical demonstration, in which 
devoted women and men of all beliefs and 
creeds now help hasten the desire of Him who 
knelt, 1900 years ago, and prayed, ''that they 
all may be one; as thou, Father, in me, and I in 
thee, that they also may be one in us; that the 
world may believe that thou hast sent me."* 

Remembering all who went further, it shall 
be for us to "resolve that these dead shall not 
have died in vain/'f . 

Dead? 

Who are the dead? 

Surely not the unselfish spirits who sacrificed 
their bodies on the altar of Freedom. 
Their deeds and glory are immortal. 
Are they, themselves, anything less? 

''They have passed into eternity," we are ac- 
customed to say. 

Eternity? 

Do you limit eternity? 

Can you locate eternity's beginning, etern- 
ity's end? 

*John 17:21. fLincoln's Gettysburg Address. 



268 SOLDIERS OF THE LEGION 

Then shall we presume to think those noble 
spirits who went forward to keep our own tem- 
porary abiding place safe for us a while longer, 
dead ? 



"No man," said Canon Farrar, ''can pass into 
eternity for he is already in it. The dead are no 
more in eternity now than they always were, or 
than every one of us is at this moment. We 
may ignore the things eternal; shut our eyes 
hard to them; live as though they had no exist- 
ence — nevertheless, eternity is around us here, 
now at this moment, at all moments ; and it will 
have been around us every day of our ignorant, 
sinful, selfish lives. Its stars are ever over our 
heads, while we are so diligent in the dust of our 
worldliness, or in the tainted stream of our de- 
sires. The dull brute globe moves through its 
ether and knows it not; even so our souls are 
bathed in eternity and are never conscious 
of it." 

Water rises to its source — that is common 
knowledge. But, if we actually cannot see the 
thing, we often rely on established mental 
habit, prescribed for us, long since, by others. 



L'ENVOI 269 

The soldier, facing the truly big things of 
life, who learns to discard, in emergency, the 
book of rules, cannot believe his comrade, 
whose lifeless, torn body he left on the field, but 
whose spirit still inspires him, dead. In the 
strong days of his youth, he remembers, now, 
his Creator. He knows his absent comrade's 
spirit lives — as does his own, responding to that 
urge to victory! and he knows that they shall 
both return unto God who gave them. 

It is for us, still humanly on the job, to so 
manage that, when such brave spirits come 
back, either to resume their interrupted tasks 
or to take on greater, we shall have faithfully 
done our Might to make this old world a better 
place in which to live and work. 

Science, from her laboratory, reports that 
nothing is ever lost. 

Real religion and science agree. 



INDICES 



SOME AMERICAN MEMBERS SOME FOREIGN MEMBERS 
SOME OTHERS 

SOME AMERICAN MEMBERS 



PAGE 

Appleton, Walter 84 

American Veterans in 

France 47 

Arrowsmith, Robert 11 

Augustine, Guy 103 

Back, James J 45, 104 

Barclay, Norman 83 

Barriere 53 

Barry, Arthur 43, 70 

Baylies, Frank J 57, 59 

Bigelow, Braxton 91 

Blake, Dr. James A 97 

Blount, Allen Richard 93 

Bonnell, Brock B 97 

Bouligny, Edgar 

39,42,44, 104, 105. 110, 131 
Bowe, John, cover to cover! 
Bresse, William Lawrence 72 

Brown, John 47 

Buckley, Everett 92 

Bullard 50 

Capdevielle, F. 

47, 55, 106, 110, 116, 155 

Carstairs, J. S 99 

Casey, J. J 43,131 

Casmese, G 87 

Chamberlain, Cyrus F. . . . 59 
Champollion, Andrew C..101 

Chapman, Victor 81, 104 

Charles, Christopher 83 

Charton, John 78 



PAGE 

Chatcoff, Lincoln 51,132 

Clair, N. Frank 97 

Claude, Henry 91 

Coit, Henry Augustus. .. 100 

Collier, Edward M 91 

Collins 54 

Cowdin, Elliot C 91,104 

Culbert, Robert L 100 

Curtis 104 

Davis, Maurice 75 

Delpesche, George. 70, 106,110 

Deming, Schuyler 96 

Demetire 101 

Depew, Albert N 100 

Doolittle, James Ralph... 67 
Dowd, Dennis, 41, 44, 108, 132 
Drossner, Charles Jean. . . 75 

Dubois 92, 94-99, 101, 104 

Dugan, William E 88 

Escadrille, The Lafayette. 104 

Farnsworth, H. W 98 

Fike, John Earle 95 

Galliard, Eugene 82 

Ganson, Geo. W 99 

Gehrung, Dr. Julian A. . . . 68 
Genet, Edward Charles. 48, 93 
Hall, Harmon Edwin.... 94 

Hall, James Norman 95 

Hall, W. R. or "Bert". 94, 104 

Hard, R 63 

Haviland 80 



271 



272 



SOLDIERS OF THE LEGION 



PAGE 

Hoskier, Ronald Wood. 48, 80 

Huffer, John 82 

Huffert, John 87 

Ingmer, Paul 59 

Jacobs, Eugene 53,155 

Karayinis, Nicholas 59 

Kelly, Russell A 87 

King, D. W 42, 110,132 

Kroegh 52 

Lafayette Escadrille, The. 104 

La Grange, Henry 63 

Larson, Nelson 97 

Laurent, John 54, 132 

le Dous, Paul Raoul 79 

Littaner, Kenneth Proctor 88 

Lufberry, Raoul 58, 76 

Maffart, Paul 80 

Marquet, George 62 

McConnell, James B 95 

Meyer, George 77 

Milkovich, Mjojlo 64 

Morlae, Edward, 45, 
46, 55, 98, 106, 108, 131, 154 

Molter, Bennett 83 

Mouvet, Oscar 55 

Moyet, Manuel 61 

Mulhauser, Robert... 84, 155 

Musgrave, Frank 57, 143 

Narutz 44, 88, 110, 154 

Needham, Henry Beech.. 101 
Nelson, Elof . . .44, 62, 108, 131 

Nock, Ivan 72 

Noe, Jack 63 

Norton, Paul 72 

O'Connell 55 

Orlinger, Professor ...18, 56 
Paringfield, M 93 



PAGE 

Paul, James 69 

Pavelka, Paul .56, 143 

Pellissier, Robert 99 

Peixotto, George 50 

Perigord, Paul 81 

Phelizot 53-55,57 

Pollet, Tony 48, 105 

Prince, Fred 89 

Prince, Norman 88. 104 

Putnam, David E 59 

Roche, Marius 97 

Rockwell, Kiffin 

Yates 56.72, 104 

Rockwell, Paul 73 

Rockwell, Robert 74 

Rosenberg, Sylvain 103 

Roxas, Juan 87 

Sartoris, Algernon 56 

Scanlon, Bob 

44, 46, 48, 108, 132, 157 

Scanlon, Laurence 47 

Seeger, Alan 

44, 85, 110, 132, 154 
Soubiron, Bob. 50, 57, 106, 116 

Starr, D. Parrish 101 

Stehlin, Joseph C 77 

Stone, Edward Mandell.. 97 
Sweeney, Chas. S.55, 106, 107 

Thaw, William 90, 104 

Thorin, D. W. or "Billy" 74 

Trinkard, Charles 54 

Van de Kerkove, Emil E. 70 
Van Vorst, Dr.... 89, 106, 109 
Veterans, American in 

France 47 

Walbron, Andrew 80 

Walbron, Ernest 80 



INDICES 



273 



PAGE 

Watson, Dr 57 

Weeks, Kenneth 79 

Wheeler, Dr. David D 78 

Whitmore, Frank 98 

Williams, Snowy 92 



PAGE 

Willis, Harold Buckley... 7S 

Wilson, F 74 

Wright, Harold E 60 

Wright, Milton 66 

Zinn, F. W 44, 94 



SOME FOREIGN MEMBERS 



Alsatians ?)7 , 38 

Ariel, M.— Turk 70 

Authoine, General 2)7 

Aza, Nagar — Persian 59 

Azef, Ben — Arab 65 

Ballala, Michal— 

Abyssinian 67 

Bazaine, Marshal 29 

Betrand, Rene — a 

Problem 79 

Blomme, Chas. — Belgian. 20 
Bondt, Jan Der Tex — 

Hollander... 17, 70, 105, 195 
Bucher, Edwin — Swiss ... 60 

De Chamer — Swiss 65 

Degoutte, General 23 

de Montesquion, Marquis. 60 

Deville, Colonel . Z6 

Djebelis, Abel — Maltese.. 61 
Duritz, Lieut. Colonel... 36 
East Indian (no name) ... 60 

Eilyaken — Egyptian 62 

Elkington, Colonel — 

Englishman 67 

Emery — Swiss 65, 146 



Etchevarry — French 

convict 78 

Francois, Alexandre — 

Swiss 20 

Garabaldi, Bruno — 

Italian 34, 62 

Garabaldi, Peppino — 

Italian 34. 62 

Gorky, Piechkoff — 

Russian 62 

Guimeau — French 75 

Hochedlinger, Ch. A. — 

Pole 6/ 

Korneis, Nick — Greek.... 78 

Lobedef, M. — Russian.... 61 

Lorraines i7, 38 

MacMahon, Patrick 29 

Mousseine, Said — Turk... 68 

Pellisser, Marshal 29 

St. Gaudens, Augustus. 17, 69 

Salifon, Dinah — African.. 77 

Seriadis, E. — Greek 70 

Sorenson — Dane 74 

\Valsamakis, M. — Greek... 61 

Varma — Hindoo 69 



Americans, 
"goers" 



SOME OTHERS 
and 



Angerau, Marshal of 

France 28 



274 



SOLDIERS OF THE LEGION 



PAGE 

Anglo-Saxon, early.... 26, 27 
Asquith, Mr. "Wait and 

See" 219 

Berwick, Duke of 27 

Bonaparte, Napoleon.... 

17, 28, 186 

Boxers, Chinese 35 

Briand, of France 229 

Broglie, of Broglie 27 

Butler, Nicholas Murray.. 262 

Cavell, Edith 248 

Christ, Jesus 

27, 151, 261, 265, 267 
Clemenceau, of France... 229 
Coeur-de-Lion, Richard. . 26 

Cornwallis, General 25 

Dahomey, women warriors 35 

D'Aubigne, Philip 26 

Democrats, Social 33 

Devil, the incarnate 259 

Eitel, Fritz, Prince 245 

French, early 26, 27 

Fryatt, Captain 248 

Garabaldi, General 30 

George, Lloyd 229 

God, Father. .152, 265, 267, 269 

Grant, General 152 

Greene, General 152 

Hamilton, Alexander. .63, 152 
Herald, The N. Y.47, 49, 111 
Hills, Nora K., "Peace". .281 

Hughes, of Australia 229 

Hughes, Sam, of Canada. .229 

Hugo, Victor 149 

Indo-China, pigtails of... 35 
Jacquet, Eugene, Free- 
mason 248 



PAGE 

Jeanne d'Arc.l24, 152, 186,247 

Kerensky, of Russia 229 

Kings, Irish 29 

Kipling, Rudyard, "Der 

Tag!" 31 

Kitchener, Lord 59 

La Fayette, General... 9, 152 
Lincoln, Abraham, . . . 152, 229 

Louis XVIII 28 

Ludwig, Dr. O. P 17 

Mohammedans, the 30 

Napoleon, Bonaparte 

17, 28, 186 

Napoleon III 30 

Noix, General 57 

Nordemann, Albert F 59 

Pershing, General 9 

Peter, King of Serbia 59 

Poincare, President 36 

Rantzan, Ancient Soldier. 27 
Revolutionists, the 

French 27 

Rochambeau, of France. . . 152 

Roosevelt, Teddy 229 

Sherman, General 152 

Spirit of '76, Awakened. . 152 

Stuarts, Scottish 27 

St. Genevieve, of France.. 186 

St. Peter, Gate-tender 219 

Veneviolis, of Greece 229 

Virgin Mary, Mother 151 

Viviani, of France. .. .46, 229 
Vernof, Russian Prince. . 59 

Washington, George 

25, 114, 152, 259, 266 
Wilson. Woodrow 229 



THE MINNEAPOLIS SUN DAY TBIBTJNE 

JANUARY 6, 1918 

Monk's Omens in 1600 
Fit Dire Events of 
Present World's War 



It Will Be Necessary to Kill More 

Men Than Rome Had, Said 

Brother John. 



"ARMIES TO COME FROM 
ALL PARTS OF GLOBE." 



But "Anti-Christ Will Lose His 

Crown and Armies and 

Die in Solitude." 



BY CHARLES L. MACGREGOR. 

Have you read that remarkable 
prophecy of Brother John? Brother 
John^ a monk, lived in 1600 — 300 years 
ago. His forecast points to the events 
of the present war with amazing close- 
ness. 

It is said there is no doubt that this 
is a genuine ancient document. It was 
published shortly after the war's out- 
break, by M. Pelandan, a French liter- 
ary man of high reputation, who gave 



276 SOLDIERS OF THE LEGION 

its history since the Sixteenth cen- 
tury. Here are some of its most strik- 
ing passages: 

*'The real anti-Christ will be one of 
the monarchs of his time, a Lutheran 
Protestant. He will invoke God and 
give himself out as His messenger (or 
apostle). 

''This prince of lies will swear by 
the Bible. He will represent himself 
as the arm of the Most High, sent to 
chastise corrupt peoples. 

''He will have only one arm, but his 
innumerable armies, who will take for 
their device the words 'God with us,' 
will resemble the infernal legions. 

' ' For a long time he will act by craft 
and strategy, his spies will overrun the 
earth, and he will be the master of the 
secrets of the mighty. 

' ' He will have learned men in his 
pay who will maintain, and undertake 
to prove, his celestial mission. 

' ' A war will furnish him with the op- 
portunity of throwing off the mask. It 
will not be the first instance of a war 
which he will wage against a French 
monarch. But it will be one of such 
nature that after two weeks all will 
realize its universal character. 

"Not only will all Christians and all 
Mussulmans, but even other more dis- 
tant peoples will be involved. Armies 
will be enrolled from the four quarters 
of the globe. 

"For, by the third week the angel 
will have opened the minds of men, who 
will perceive that the man is anti- 
Christ, and that they will all become his 
slaves if they do not overthrow this con- 
queror. 

"Will Murder Helpless." 

"Anti-Christ will be recognized by 
various tokens, in especial he will mas- 
sacre the priests, the monks, the women, 
the children and the aged. He will show 



BROTHER JOHN'S PROPHECY 277 

no mercy, but will pass, torch in hand, 
like the barbarians, but invoking Christ. 

"His words of imposture will resem- 
ble those of Christians, but his actions 
will be those of Nero and of the 
Eoman persecutors. 

"He will have an eagle in his arms 
and there will be an eagle also in the 
arms of his confederate, another bad 
monarch. 

"In order to conquer anti-Christ, it 
will be necessary to kill more men than 
Eome has ever contained. It will need 
the energies of all the kingdoms, because 
the cock, the leopard, afi^ the white 
eagle will not be able to make an end 
of the black eagle without the aid of 
the prayers and vows of all the human 
race. 

"Never will humanity have been 
faced with such a peril, because the 
triumph of anti-Christ would be that 
of the demon, who will have taken pos- 
session of his personality. 

' ' The black eagle, who will come 
from the land of Luther, will make a 
surprise attack on the cock from an- 
other side, and will invade the land of 
the cock up to one-half. 

"The white eagle who will come 
from the North will fall upon the black 
and the other eagle and completely in- 
vade the land of the anti-Christ. 

"The black eagle will find itself 
forced to let go the cock in order to 
fight the white eagle, whereupon the 
cock will have to pursue the black eagle 
into the land of the anti-Christ to aid 
the white eagle. 

"The battles fought up to that time 
will be as nothing compared with those 
which will take place on the Lutheran 
country; for the seven angels will 
simultaneously pour out the fire of 
their censors upon the impious land. In 
other words, the lamb ordains the ex- 
termination of the race of anti-Christ. 



278 SOLDIERS OF THE LEGION 

Hunger and Pestilence. 

''Men will be able to cross the rivers 
over the bodies of the dead, which in 
places will change the courses of the 
streams. Only the bodies of the most 
noble, the highest captains and the 
princes, will be buried; for to the car- 
nage of the battlefields will be added 
the destruction of myriads who will die 
from hunger and pestilence. 

''It will be made manifest that the 
combat, to be fought out in that part 
of the country in which anti-Christ 
forges his arms, is no human conflict. 
The three animals, defenders of the 
lamb, will exterminate the last army 
of anti-Christ. But it will be neces- 
sary to make the fields of battle a 
funeral pyre as great as the greatest 
of cities, for the corpses will have al- 
tered the features of the land by 
forming ranges of little hills. 

"Anti-Christ will lose his crown and 
die in solitude and madness. His em- 
pire will be divided into 22 states, but 
none will have any longer either forti- 
fications or army or ships of war. 

' ' The white eagle, by order of Mich- 
ael, will drive the crescent out of 
Europe, where there will be no longer 
any but Christians. He will install 
himself at Constantinople. 

"Then will commence an era of peace 
and prosperity for the universe and 
there will be no longer any war. Each 
nation will be governed according to its 
own heart, and will live in accordance 
with justice. 

' ' The lamb will reign and the hap- 
piness of humanity will begin. 

"Happy will be those who, escaping 
the perils of this marvelous time, will 
be able to taste of its fruit. This will 
be the reign of the Spirit and the sanc- 
tification of humanity, which could not 
come to pass until after the defeat of 
anti-Christ. ' ' 



BROTHER JOHN'S PROPHECY 279 

Get Out Greatest Book. 

Brother John says: "He will only 
have one arm." 

Madam Thebes, the celebrated palmist 
of Paris, says: ''I have seen the hand 
of William II, his left hand is that of 
a fatalist, withered and smaller than 
the other, on an arm shorter than his 
right. This weakness William sought 
to conceal all his life." 

Suppose we get out the Old Book, the 
Bible, the Greatest book in the world, 
the world's ''Best Seller"— with 
presses working day and night, unable 
to supply the present demand for it — 
and find what it contains for us. There 
is something there, depend upon it, of 
great interest and of vital importance, 
that we should be noticing carefully. 

You remember that dear old lady, 
who, when the minister called, went 
and got out her Bible, in the most 
natural and off-hand way possible. She 
allowed it to open where it would as 
she handed it to her pastor, and her 
spectacles fell out, causing her to ex- 
claim in her surprise, ''Why if there 
ain 't my specs I lost pretty nigh a year 
ago! ' ' 

Let 's find our specs, then use 'em ! 

Don't read simply, — Think. Keep the Dome 
fires burning! 

Did America's war vaccination ''take''? 

Are we at the end of War? 

Which end? 

Or, may we not be but in the midst of World 
Travail? 



28o SOLDIERS OF THE LEGION 

What of the Classes, inflamed and in flames? 

Does not Sammy come marching home too 
soon ? Our British Brother may have too much 
on hands, — and not enough of his own coal! to 
take two-thirds of an American Expeditionary 
Force across a second time. 

Did not our United States almost at Thanks- 
giving Eve, with the anniversary of the Christ- 
child's birth just around the corner, quit pray- 
ers and vows somewhat hurriedly? When you 
read published instructions to discontinue the 
noon-time 60 seconds' quiet meditation, did you 
hear, out of Gethsemane, in anguish-wearied 
voice, ''What, could ye not watch with me one 
hour?"* 

Business? Yes, and work like the Devil! 

But, make more than just a conversational 
fad of Reconstruction, too; and, while Amer- 
ica labors — and gives — and Watches, let not 
feverish haste which discards morning news- 
papers, with their lists of casualties, on the way 
to the oflice make us forget that lingering sad- 

*Matthew 26:40. 



BROTHER JOHN'S PROPHECY 281 

ness of the stricken-hearted Mother, full of sor- 
row, — only a few, here and there, yes. But, in 
her loneliness. She is paying for what we cele- 
brate. 

Pray a bit more, even if unofficially, while 
waiting for press dispatches of 



PEACE 

At last. 
The tired mother closes wide-strained eyes. 

The tears have come, the tears so long delayed. 
Her boy, her loved one, who in Flanders lies — 

Her sacrifice ! Ah, not in vain 'twas made ! 

She weeps. 
At last she weeps, and, softly weeping, prays 

That God, who understands, will so forgive 
The hardness of her heart these many days 

Because he died while those less worthy live. 

She knows 

That fitly to accomplish this great end- 
To free the world through sacrifice and pain — 

The noblest hearts, the bravest souls, must lend 
All that they have, the final good to gain. 

She smiles. 
He is not dead, not dead, her splendid boy ; 

Forever he lives on ! And to her heart 
There comes at last a thrill of purest joy, 
That he and she together did their part. 

^Nora K. Hills. 



SOME COMMENT 



Galley Slaves in we never sleep 

our fourfold Tri- 
reme — Yes, make 
it ''Try-Ream/' if 
you prefer, and 
absolutely insist ! 
Anyhow, our Gal- 
ley Slaves hardly 
regard a new 
manuscript, 
though it be for a 
book — even a 
War book — as a 
novelty in t h e i r 
very busy lives. 
Much less do they 
ship their oars to 
peruse and dis- 
cuss one. 

But that is ex- 
actly what hap- 
pened when the first form of ''Soldiers of the Legion/' 
Second printing — first edition having lasted not quite one 
month! — reached the lock-up room; and we were in a 
hurry for it, too, down on the presses. 

An hour and a half after the final, corrected proofs 
reached the stone, one of our hardened old-timers was 
discovered, attentively bent over the sheets. Asked if the 
"rush" form had gone downstairs, he replied, "No. I'm 
going to lock it up as soon as I get done reading it." Then 
he called another of our men and read to him a while ! 

A few days before, one of the boys came and asked if 
he might have some copies of ''Soldiers of the Legion'' to 




sell. He told us he had been setting type, nights, on this 
After-the-War book, which he believed people would sit 
lip nights to read, that he is an experienced magazine 
agency manager, whom recent Government requirements 
forced out of business, that the baby was sick and that his 
good wife is a regular Private Secretary who can handle 
the correspondence and work while he sleeps. Would we 
prove that What We Want Is Orders? 

We thought we Would. On investigation, we learned 
that Mr. Bowe's collaborator and representative who was 
personally supervising getting out this Second Edition and 
whom the day shift always left at work evenings, and 
found on the job mornings, had amiably proceeded to 
break about all the rules of Book-making and was actually 
putting out something Different. The conservative Su- 
perintendent of our Book Department declared, ''There 
is a book which will attract Attention, it is so very Un- 
usual that folks, when they see it, wall insist on know- 
ing why it's made that way." 

So, we organized a new department, the Individual 
Circulation Department. If you patronize it and encour- 
age us, we shall try to prevent your missing some of the 
other Good Things we have to print here, now and then. 
Meanwhile, do remember old Hood's sarsaparilla and be 
a Loving Friend. 

Somewhere between our tested and capable employees 
— for we hire none other ! and the several different sorts 
of persons quoted in what follows, you probably will find 
your own place. If not, make a place for yourself the 
way the manager of our new Individual Circulation De- 
partment did ; and be sure, like him, also, to tell us your 
opinion of ''Soldiers of the Legion." Please bring it to 
the attention of your friends — and your enemies, too, if 
you have any (their appreciation of your kind thought- 
fulness may fix things up and get you at least an armistice, 



if not actual peace of mind). Let us know what You 

think about it, at least, so we can retain your name on 

our mailing list. Note, we print "Who's Who In 

America" ! 

Oh, yes, we are Printers, you know ; not "Publishers" 

yet; and, in hurrying the production of this particularly 

timely volume, which is a bit ahead of the times, as you 

will see, we omitted to emphasize the fact that this book, 

''Soldiers of the Legion/' so ably "Trench Etched" by 

Legionnaire Bowe, contains Some Pictures. You may 

have noticed them — however, the real depicting of the 

Great War, its Actors, its Problems, you will find in the 

text itself. Here are some comments that have been 

made by folk who saw the manuscript, or parts of it : 

Mrs. J. M. Green, Manager Book Section, Marshall Field and 
Company, Chicago: 

"It is good. I did what I seldom can do — read some in it. 
Those first two Historical Chapters interested me very much. 
We have been selling the first edition. We shall be glad to 
have the Second printing and I am glad it is necessary. You 
may as well leave that Picture hanging there till after the 
Holidays." 
Nathaniel McCarthy, Veteran Bookseller, Minneapolis: 

"It should have had a Publisher. That man's material is 
solid gold but, in just having it printed, he has taken his 
gold to a Blacksmith and the watch made of it probably will 
not keep time. It is different from all the other more than 
300 War Books. While it is crude in places, it simply had 
to be. Scribner's would have been glad to put that material 
out and push it from coast to coast." 

John Bowe, Himself, Private "Jack," Soldier of The Legion, 
Minnesota Mayor, Produce Commission Merchant, Farmer, 
Canby, Minnesota: 

"Mac, old man, that's the way I felt; how did you know? 
That is quite right — that Start is a stemwinder. Can you 
keep it up? It's Military, steps right along — not an unneces- 
sary word! And that Ending — My God, man, ye could never 
have stopped without that!" 

Janet Priest, Publicity Woman Metro Picture Corporation, 
New York City: 

"I believe your book will go. It looks good to me. I know 
a number of the men whom you describe. Anything about 
them is bound to be interesting and well received. You are 
darn right about the war not being over!" 



Elizabeth Gordon, "The Miniature Writer," Beloved of Kid- 
dies, Chicago: 

"This will sell. Too bad it did not have a Publisher — but 
it is probably not too late yet. It has the merit of being 
entirely Unique also, Truth. Congratulations, fellow scribbler. 
I said you would do it — or, rather, that you should do it." 

John T. Hoyle, formerly Chief Editorial Department Roycroft 
Shops, for 10 years Literary Adviser of Elbert Hubbard. 
Felix Shay admits, "When it comes to Books and the things 
that are in them, John T. Hoyle has not his equal in America." 
Mr. Hoyle is Instructor in Business English, and in Editorial 
Studies, Carnegie Institute of Technology, Pittsburgh: 

"Your work for John Bowe is superb. I read it all with 
sympathy and intense interest." 

Gratia Countryman, Librarian Public Libraries of Minne- 
apolis: 

"When our Boys come home I believe they are going to 
be so far ahead of us Spiritually that we shall have to hurry 
to catch up with them. You are bringing out this fact with 
new points which others have seemed to overlook; and you 
have written beautifully. Historically, too, the work has real 
value. We shall want your book here, also in our 12 branches. 
There is a place for this Book." 

Elizabeth Wallace, Associate Professor of French, University 
of Chicago : 

"I was much interested in the book. It is vivid and original. 
But it seems rather loosely put together and not as well organ- 
ized as it might be in order to make the most of the material. 
I am frank, you see — but you asked me!" 

Ruth Wickersham, Public Library, Denver, Colorado: 

"Material good but rather hard to handle properly. The 
story is inclined to be disconnected; but, on the whole, as good 
a book of personal experiences as any I have read. Should 
take well with the ordinary reader." 

Mrs. J. B. Sherwood, Former Chairman Art Committee Gen- 
eral Federation of Women's Clubs, President Holiday House 
Association, Chicago: 

"This book is very Unusual. It is True and Beautiful. In 
places, it is rough; but it is going to Help — and that's the 
Great thing to consider in anything we do." 
Rector James E. Freeman, St. Mark's Church, Minneapolis, 
Personal Representative of Secretary of War Newton D. 
Baker at United States Cantonments : 

"I have read with interest your manuscript. You have 
written exceedingly well. The underlying sentiment of all 
that you have written is altogether good. I think I like par- 
ticularly your introduction, for here you have crisp, epigram- 
matic sentences." 



Kenneth M. Bradley, President Bush Conservatory, Chicago: 

"I am glad your work has Historical values which make 
it deserve to live — there have been many of the other kind. It 
clearly suggests my own definition of Religion, 'That which 
sustains me when I can't depend on myself.' " 

Rev. Frederick W. Oakes, B. D. Chairman and Vice-President 
The Oakes Home Association, Church Home for Sick Stran- 
gers, Denver, Colorado: 

"You were kind and courteous to send me the enclosed 
pages of strong and pure — Christian philosophy. I have read 
them with inspiration. I can but say Dr. Freeman did well 
indeed when he caused you to turn up your lamp. And such 
words cannot fail to give light to a very great number of peo- 
ple with great encouragement. Do not expect everyone to 
enter into their full meaning — Only those who have caught the 
Greater Truth can you expect to see and understand. 'God is 
in His world' is the saying many hear and leave it there. Of 
course, He is in His world; but it will make but little difference 
to us unless we find out why He is in His world. He is in His 
world, I take it, to help man, every man, to his Divine Right. 
First came The Divine Right of Popes, — Abused, then the 
Divine Right of Kings, and now the greatest of unfolding 
of God's truths — The Divine Right of Man. I pray we may 
all see it, and appreciate the wonderful truth in its clearer 
sense and light, as it is being worked out by so many of -those 
who have gone forth to the call of Country — Yes, the call of 
the World's great privileges. 

You may do more to help than you know by thus following 
the cue Mr. Freeman has given you, but which really came 
from God." 

John Bowe and his Collaborator — who says he's "de 
guy w^hat put the labor in col/a^orator !" are like the Sol- 
diers they portray in that they believe in changing "im- 
possible" to Fm possible. It is a big job they're on, mar- 
keting an unadvertised, unpublished — just a printed — 
Book, against formidable obstacles ; but w^e believe you 
W\\\ be glad if you assist us in helping them get it across. 
Send us ^orders for ''Soldiers of the Legion." Get it 
into your Public and School Libraries. Mention it to 
your Bookseller. 

PETERSON LINOTYPING CO., 
523-537 Plymouth Court, Chicago. 

* Orders (singular fact, perhaps, but more than One order— and we are 
as much surprised as you may be) have already begun to come in from 
Boston. We'll say, Boston people have Some BEANS. 



El I. H 



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